


Messiah Ficlets

by Takophin



Category: Messiah Project - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-02 18:25:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 35,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8678422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takophin/pseuds/Takophin
Summary: One shot collections featuring most of Messiah Project characters 1. Alarm (Haku/Suo/Eiri)2. Beer (Kamikita/Kuroko/Ichijima)3. Marble (Ariga/Mamiya)4. Oven (Kuroko/Ariga)5. Eagle (Eiri/Yuuri)6. Bookcase (wAmane, Misu/Amane)7. Souma Alone8. Duty (Sakai/Shuusuke)9. Sandwich (Ichijima/Kamikita)10. Sky (Mamoru/Kaito)11. Thankyou (Amane/Kagami)12. Hero (Mamoru/Eiri/Haku)13. Moth (Takano alone)14. Mamiya Seiren15. Tag (Gen 1)16. Cleaning (Gen 1+Kuroko)17. KFM (Gen 2+Kuroko)18. KFM cont. (Ariga/Kagami)19. Celebration (General)20. Route (Misu,Amane,Takano)21. Mutual Killing22. Two wrongs do (not) make a right23. No Free Lunch (Ichijima/Kamikita)24. With a kiss (Ariga/Mamiya)25. Chance encounter (Haku/Eiri)26. Intersection(Haku/Eiri)27. Transport (Misu/Amane)28. First Snow (Haku/Eiri)29. Ice-cream (Souma/Shuusuke)30. Graduation Mission (Ichijima/Kamikita)31. Highschool AU (1/3) (Ariga/Mamiya)32. AU (2/3)33. AU (3/3)34. The End of A Beginning35. The Beginning of An End





	1. Alarm (Haku/Suo and Haku/Eiri)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haku never needed an alarm clock until he met Eiri, because until then, he never had a reason to wake up.  
> Characters: Mitsumi Haku, Mitsumi Suo, Kaidou Eiri

"Haku! Haku, wake up!"

Haku who was not sleeping in the first place, immediately rose from bed at the urgent whispers from his brother Suo. "Is it father again?" Haku tried to read his brother's face for answer, but it was too difficult to see in the darkness of their room. If his brother had turned on the lights, father would know that they were still awake and…and…

Haku did not realize he was making a face until his brother's hand cupped his face. "It's alright. Father's not here." Suo's words soothed all his worries away. His brother waited in silence until Haku's heartbeat had returned to normal before he made any move.

"Come on. Let's eat." Suo took a step away, giving some space for Haku to step out of the bed. That was their rite every other night. Father would beat them if he knew they had brought food home. But his brother was very smart. He always found ways to smuggle foods for him. Haku felt really blessed to have him as his brother, he thought as he sat on the floor opposite to his brother.

"So this time, I got strawberry, blackcurrant, and orange Nanny. I also got you this new candy that…" Haku was not really paying attention to his brother, who tried his best to explain everything while taking out the items out of the plastic bag as quietly as possible. All Haku thought of was how much he enjoyed these secret nights, the only time when he did not mind not being able to sleep.

* * *

_"Haku! Haku, wake up!"_  

"That's… a very interesting alarm you have there." Haku heard his first messiah commented, all while pretending that he was still fast asleep and deaf to the alarm clock. He did not want to wake up. He knew, that even if he did, there would be no sweets, no Nannies, no candies,

and no Suo.

_"Haku! Haku, wake up!"_

"Still asleep like a baby, huh?" His messiah totally fell for Haku's act. "I'll just leave him be." Haku heard footsteps, and the sound of door closing softly, but like earthquakes to those with sensitive ears.

_"Haku! Haku, wake up!"_

Haku turned his back to the alarm and let sleep washed over him as the alarm clock rang him lullabies.

* * *

"Are you still awake, Haku?"

Haku wanted to pretend that he was fast asleep, but it was infinitely harder to do that when his head felt like splitting in half, his stomach being trampled by elephants, and his nerves running liquid lava. Haku did not want to open his eyes, because that was the last defense he had to prevent his dam from bursting.

So Haku pretended that he was fast asleep.

His brother obviously did not buy it at all.

"There there…" His brother whom he shared the bed with stroked his hair gently. It stung whenever his brother brushed past the bruised part, but Haku did not want his brother to stop. "You need to get some sleep. It's not good for your health."

 _I can't_. Haku wanted to answer. He did not dare to open his mouth.

"Let me tell you a story about-"

 _Don't_. Haku did not realize that he mouthed his answer before it was too late. It was his fault that they were caught by father and punished. He did not deserve that story.

"Okay then." His brother did not stop brushing his hair. "Let's count some sheep."

Haku thought it was a bad idea, but he let his brother did it anyway.

"One sheep, two sheep, three sheep…"

Haku always wondered why it stopped at twenty. He knew too late, that there was no need to go on.

* * *

_"…fifty sheep, fifty one sheep, fifty two sheep, fifty…"_

Haku's second messiah was very quiet with his new alarm clock. Not even a single comment. His second messiah just rose from his bed and walked out of the room. Haku could not even sense anger from him.

_"…sixty sheep, sixty one sheep, sixty two sheep, sixty…"_

Haku stared blankly at the ceiling. To his surprise, this alarm was a thousand times more effective than the previous one in waking him up. Useless, since he was never asleep to begin with. He considered reusing his first alarm for a second before crossing the idea completely off his head. What happened to his first messiah…

_"That's…a very interesting alarm you have there."_

_"Still using that alarm?"_

_"It's pretty nice actually!"_

He did not need to be reminded of that.

When his second messiah met the same fate as his first, Haku stowed everything away.

"What happened to your alarm clock?" Gojou Souma asked him on one random morning. Haku found it funny, that he only commented only after the alarm was gone.

"I don't need it."

* * *

_"Haku! Haku, wake up!"_ The alarm rang.

 _"Still asleep like a baby as usual, huh?"_ Would be the expected response.

"OI HAKU! WAKE UP! I KNOW YOU'RE AWAKE! WAKE UP, HAKU!!"

His third messiah, however, managed to entirely override that impression.

 _"One sheep, two sheep, three sheep…"_ The alarm rang.

The sound of someone quietly rising from bed and walking out of the room, would be the expected response.

"WHAT THE HELL, NOW COUNTING SHEEP?! WHO COUNTS SHEEP WHEN THEY ARE TRYING TO WAKE UP?! ARE YOU TRYING TO WAKE UP OR ARE YOU TRYING TO SLEEP!? OI HAKU, TURN THE THING OFF!" 

Kaidou Eiri, his third messiah who made Haku wonder whether the kid had accidentally eaten a dynamite when he was born.

"Set your alarm off or I'll shoot them tomorrow." Eiri threatened, gesturing at the alarm clock on Haku's bed rest with his gun before he went to his bed.

"Kaaaay~" Haku answered, taking one of the clock and adjusting it accordingly, before doing the same to the other one.

He could not wait to wake up tomorrow.

_"HAKU! HAKU, WAKE UP!"_

_"ONE SHEEP, TWO SHEEP, THREE SHEEP…"_

 "HAKU!!!"

_BANG BANG!!_

Haku grinned ear to ear, the perfect pretense of him being fast asleep completely broken. Though, he was actually asleep this time.

"I TOLD YOU TO TURN THE ALARMS OFF AND YOU'RE STILL KEEPING THEM ON! YOU'RE AWAKE ANYWAY SO WAKE UP!!"

That, and he could not sleep even if he wanted anyway, especially with his third alarm he had. So he might as well get some sleep, so that he could wake up to it tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to this compilations of Messiah ficlets. I shall try to update 1 story everyday. The theme is decided with random one word prompt generator online. The characters that may be featured each day are as follows:   
> Monday: 1st generation (Haku, Eiri, Souma, Shuusuke)  
> Tuesday: Ichijima, Kamikita, Kuroko (I would add the other senior characters if I can understand)  
> Wednesday: 2nd generation (Ariga, Mamiya, Mamoru, Kaito, Itsuki)  
> Thursday: Random draw  
> Friday: 1st gen and 2nd gen pair  
> Saturday: Misu, Amane, Takano  
> Sunday: Free  
> Some of what I write may not be canon since I don't have full understanding of Messiah project. When that happens, please do not hesitate to inform me! You can also suggest me themes and characters to write!
> 
> A bit about myself:
> 
> The purpose of this project, for me, is so that I will spend my day achieving at least something productive. Fanfiction is not exactly a productive thing…but it's better than doing nothing, so I will give it a try. I try to cap the writing time to a maximum of 1 hour per each ficlet so that I won't get too immersed in it, and end up coming up with a multi chapter fiction that I will never finish XD  
> And of course, I am head over heels with Messiah Project, and it needs more love~


	2. Beer (Kamikita/Kuroko and Ichijima/Kamikita)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamikita's guide to solving problems: you don't. You replace it with another.  
> Characters: Ichijima Haruumi (background), Kamikita Ryuuji, Kuroko

Kamikita Ryuuji had refused when his messiah, Ichijima Haruumi, appointed him to take over his position as the overseer of the Church. Kamikita and Ichijima were like two sides of a coin, perfect compliment, but very different. Kamikita was not the type of person that could approach people and persuade them to join his cause with a smile and a nod. He couldn't sugarcoat his words to save his life. And now Ichijima was expecting him to run an institution full of troubled kids? That's like asking a shooter with a gun to stand in a room full of shooting targets and telling him to not shoot anything.

"Then shall we test it out?" Ichijima had said with that usual sneer of his as he pushed a certain figure towards him. Kamikita stared at the person standing between him and Ichijima. Clad in all black with a face too beautiful for a man, this person reminded him of a mourning widow. "He shall be the caretaker of the Church, and your first subordinate. Give him a chance, and let's talk again another time."

Freaking Ichijima. As Ichijima's messiah, Kamikita knew _exactly_ when this cunning guy was manipulating him. That did not mean he could do anything about it, and his cunning messiah knew that all too well.

And so Kamikita was bound to the Church by an anchor called…what was the man's name again?

"…"

Nothing. That man could have not been mute, Kamikita was sure he heard a soft gasp from those lips when Ichijima had handled him over. Deaf? Ichijima would have told him that if so.

 _Traumatic_ it was then. Great. As expected of his messiah, Ichijima totally hit bullseye on Kamikita's moral compass.

Kamikita went down to the bar downstairs, intending to get some drink to soothe his pounding headache. To add to his headache, that man was there, still clad in all black, staring at him with a broom in hand. The man's eyes followed him throughout, as he was descending down the stairs, as he walked across the area he assumed the man had just swept, and as he lamented on the very limited choices of alcoholic beverages available. Kamikita sighed as he grabbed a random bottle of wine and two glasses, and sat down on the set of tables and chairs closest to where the man was standing.

"You can join me if you wish." Kamikita offered. He realized too late that his supposedly warm invitation sounded more like an order, which would explain why that man instantly threw his broom aside and took a seat across him.

"How old are you?" Kamikita tried to strike a conversation as he poured the wine for both of them. No answer. The man was just sitting there, still staring at him like he was trying to memorize every pores and wrinkles on Kamikita's face.

Alright. Kamikita honestly believed anyone in the Church deserved to drink anyway regardless of age. Time for another approach.

Kamikita passed one glass filled with scarlet liquid over to the man's side and took a gulp from the other one, trying to tell this man that it was alright to drink, that there was no poison and it's morally acceptable too since the senior had gotten the dice rolling. Still no response. How on earth did Ichijima usually do this?

As much as Kamikita disliked wine, he was glad he took that gulp before his headache blown into proportions.

"You should give that a try." Kamikita said, taking several more gulps from his glass. "I won't call it the best thing on earth, but Ichijima knows his wine."

Still nothing. Kamikita swore he could feel the air around them drop below freezing point.

Conversely, he was feeling several temperature degrees higher than before. "I'm more of a beer person actually." Kamikita set down his now empty glass. For once, the man's eyes tore away from Kamikita onto the empty glass. His silent shock didn't go unnoticed. "In this line of work, you need to be precise, effective, and efficient. No time to beat around the bush." _Unless you're Ichijima_ , Kamikita managed to left that part unsaid.

"If you want to keep your wounds to yourself, fine. But that," Kamikita gestured to the untouched drink in front of the man. "Helps a lot. Not as much as beer, but still helps."

The man switched his gaze from Kamikita's empty glass, to his filled one. That was all he did.

After a full minute had passed with no actions from him, Kamikita rose from his seat. "I'll try getting beer next time." He said more to himself. "Please clean those up." With that, Kamikita left the man behind.

Once the man was certain he was completely alone, he took his filled glass to his lips. Then he proceeded to clean two empty glasses and a half empty bottle of wine.

* * *

"Welcome home, Kamikita-san."

Kamikita nearly jumped at the greetings the moment he entered the Church, his shopping bag dropped onto the floor. He would have gone full combat mode if he was not aware that there was one other person in the Church right now whose voice he had not recognized, the one person that had not spoken a single syllable at all for the entire week he had been in the Church.

"You?"

"Yep. It's Kuroko." Kamikita's jaw nearly dropped. Did he just witness this man, the Church's new caretaker introducing himself? Kamikita shook his head. That aside, the man, Kuroko, sounded like a person that had just went home from a party. Excited, yet too tired to be excited. That being said, nothing unusual in his expression. His face looked as beautiful as before, his gaze as blank.

Kuroko pranced around to his back and started pushing Kamikita towards the stairs. "I'm cleaning right now so shoo shoo." Kuroko said those words as if he was too tired to intonate properly and just settled for the next best thing. The amount of power he used to push Kamikita, however, completely defied that idea. "And leave the bags to me kay."

Too bewildered at the change, Kamikita decided the best action was for him to leave Kuroko for a while, so he followed Kuroko's instructions. Whatever had possessed Kuroko, he was sure it would settle tomorrow. Just in case, he would check whether someone had _accidentally_ smuggled certain high inducing drug.

* * *

This was the second time Kamikita had gone home with his shopping bag, to never see its contents anymore.

After the first time, Kamikita thought there was nothing at Church that would surprise him more than Kuroko's sudden change in attitude.

"WELCOME HOME, KA~MI~KI~TA~SAN~~"

Kamikita literally hurled his shopping bag to Kuroko, who perfectly caught it with one hand.

"Kuroko?!"

"Yeap~ It's me, Kuroko!" Kuroko twirled as he introduced himself. "My my, Kamikita-san, why do you always come home juuust after I have finished cleaning?" Kuroko swiftly moved to Kamikita's back and pushed the dazed man towards the stairs, this time with the broom stick. "Come on now, shoo shoo~"

"Pass me the bag, I-"

" **SHOO SHOO**! Kamikita-san~" Kuroko smacked Kamikita's back with his broom with enough force to get the point across. But there was no malice it in. Kuroko was giggling and fluttering around as he continued sweeping the floor with Kamikita's shopping bag in hand as if Kamikita was not there, dancing to the tune that was the contents of the bag clattering against one another. The sound snapped Kamikita out of his daze.

Ever since his conversation with Kuroko, Kamikita had bought home beer twice, and drank none.

He never even got to see the can.

"Ka~mi~ki~ta~san~ is watch~ing~" Kamikita scrutinized his caretaker who was dancing more than he did sweeping. No change in complexion. No sign of excessive intoxication. This was-

Kuroko set down Kamikita's shopping bag, took out one can of beer, and gulped it down, while _winking_ at Kamikita. Once done, he placed the empty can in the bag, and continued sweeping. "Why~is~kami~kita~san so moo~dy~"

Giving one last long look at Kuroko, Kamikita smiled and nodded, leaving his bag in Kuroko's care as he ascended the stairs to his office. Kuroko nodded back with a wink and a peace sign.

Kamikita couldn't wait to report this to Ichijima, who always teased him for not having a refined enough taste to enjoy wine, that some people prefer to have those taste numbed. And that the name of the man was Kuroko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is definitely not canon, and I absolutely have no idea what Kamikita and Kuroko's relationship is supposed to be anyway since they're not messiahs and all that. And apparently my head canon for Kuroko is that he is used to keeping his true personality hidden because…well…most society doesn't take that too well. And Kamikita is Gomoto Naoya in serious mode.
> 
> Also, that '1 hour max' rule is not going so well, as you can tell from the length of the story XD


	3. Marble (Ariga/Mamiya if you squint)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even if all of them are seeing the same thing, none of them sees the same thing.  
> Characters: Focus on Ariga Ryou. Featuring Kagami Itsuki, Shirazaki Mamoru, Yuuri Kaito and also Mamiya Seiren

Both Shirazaki and Yuuri jumped when the door to their room was suddenly kicked one, their amicable conversation instantly vanished to thin air as they readied themselves for some kind of emergency. They eyed the intruder to their room,

and was met with a huge brown box staring back at them.

The person who was carrying the box freely strode into the room as if it was his. Too bewildered to say anything, Shirazaki silently followed the box man's every movement while Yuuri kept his eyes trained to the door left opened.

" _Mamoru_ …" Yuuri spoke what sounded like a whisper to everyone else. To Shirazaki, Yuuri was practically crying at the top of his lungs. Shirazaki whipped his head towards the source of his childhood friend's worry, ready to chomp his head off if he had to. If this was the Church's way of saying they were going to be separated once again, they'd have to go through him first! He was ready to raise a protest to what he thought was Kamikita entering the room.

Another box man appeared.

"It's Ariga and Kagami." The man carrying the second box explained before he entered the room.

Shirazaki could hear Yuuri breathed a sigh of relief. He, too, was glad it was not what they thought it was. Now that he was thinking a lot more clearly, he could hear the sound of something clattering against teeth from the first person. He also noticed that the box was considerably larger than what they were given when they first entered the Church, about thrice its size. And there were a lot of things in the box, for he could hear them clattering against each other when the impact of Ariga kicking the door closed behind him reached the box he was carrying. Shirazaki allowed himself to relax.

"So," Shirazaki turned to look at Kagami…or the box that completely covered Kagami's face. "What are you guys doing h-ERE!!"

Shirazaki could not even finish his question when all of the sudden, Kagami flipped his box upside down, emptying all its contents onto the floor. Various colored toys rained out of the box, making a lot of noise as they clanked against one another. But even more noticeable was the sound of multitude of tiny brittle hitting the concrete floor that was so disharmonious, it would have made Mamiya screeched…if he was still here.

"Whoops." Kagami said as if he did not just scattered a bunch of marbles all around Shirazaki and Yuuri's room.

"Kagami..!"

Ariga knotted his eyebrows. He could not see what Kagami had done, but even he could approximately tell what mess Kagami had made this time based on the noise alone. Actually, he had no idea what he was going to do here either. Kagami had suddenly shoved him this huge, yet surprisingly light boxes and went out without saying a thing. After some deliberation, Ariga decided that he should give his current messiah the benefit of the doubt and followed him.

And so here they were, on their hands and knees, tracking every tiny little transparent orbs scattered around Shirazaki and Yuuri's room. Except the culprit. Kagami was busy giving directions to Shirazaki and Yuuri who looked like they were ready to drag him down if not for the pile of toys getting in their way.

It was not difficult to track the marbles. The room was small, and they had 4 people (Kagami's instructions was also a form of contribution) looking for them. In fact, one of them rolled towards Ariga's shoes and halted immediately on impact. Ariga squatted down and picked the item. The marble he had between his thumb and index finger was as clear as a glass, not even tinted with color like the rest. One could clearly see through it, like how Ariga could see Kagami giving orders right across him, although the size of the image was slightly distorted. That was all he could see.

What did Mamiya see that day?

It was right after Ariga had finished his solo practice. Upon returning to his room, he had found Mamiya standing in the middle of the room, looking up at the lamps through a tiny item he recognized to be a transparent marble. Mamiya was apparently too absorbed in whatever he was seeing to anticipate Ariga's arrival, for he immediately scrambled away to his bed, clutching the tiny item as he muttered a weak apology. Ariga dismissed his presence and went to his bed. He had no need to know about his assigned messiah and his strange fascination towards marbles. He did not need to know.

But he had wanted to know.

Ariga tried staring through the glass marble again. Same as last time, the image of Kagami giving instructions appeared in his vision, particularly focused on the left side of his face. If Ariga adjusted how he hold the marble, moving it about this much in the southwest direction, he should be able to shoot this marble such that it hit Kagami's left eye. Too much power, and he would hit Yuuri's bedside lamp. Too few power, and he would hit that thing in Kagami's pile of toy that looked like a red doll with round head and round body. Factoring in the possibility of unexpected circumstances, he should be able to at least hit the lollipop stick Kagami was playing around in his mouth-

"Whatcha doin?"

Ariga blinked. It was Kagami, staring right back at him through the clear marble he was looking through. Shirazaki and Yuuri were also giving curious looks at him, a pile of colorful marbles on each of their hands.

"Nothing." Ariga lowered the glass marble from his line of sight. "Sorry." He added, though he wasn't sure why he apologized. He still could not understand why his messiah had apologized back then.

"Eh, no worries." Kagami easily dismissed Ariga's apology. Shirazaki and Yuuri gave him a acknowledging smile as they placed the marbles they had collected in the right place. Ariga did not move from his place, the glass marble still in his hand.

"So what brings you guys here again?" Shirazaki towered over Kagami who was squatting behind his toys. "Don't tell me you're here just to scatter toys all around our room."

Kagami picked a random item from his pile of toys and lifted it to Shirazaki's direction. It was a board filled with boxes and names that sounded very foreign to Ariga. "They call this Monopoly. You need at least 2 players to play this."

Yuuri crawled toward the pile and started digging on his own. "Look, a ludo board! Mamoru, we used to play this a lot when we're young, don't we?"

"And you need at least 2 people to play that." Kagami added.

With a strained smile, Shirazaki nodded silently.

To Ariga, none of those words make any sense. None of these items looked familiar, and Ariga had long gone past the age when he would be curious to dig through them.

"Since there's 4 of us, shall we play ludo?" Yuuri suggested. "We have never played a 4 person ludo, right, Mamoru?"

"Are you sure Kaito?" Shirazaki sounded very hesitant.

Yuuri nodded. "It's okay, Mamoru."

Yet it was Ariga who had a differing opinion. "Is there…," Ariga heard himself saying. He could have stopped himself here, but he didn't. He could feel the smooth surface of the marble against his rough palm. "Is there a game that uses marble?"

All three of them looked at Ariga as if he said 'Mamiya is alive' instead. Ariga was well aware of what happened to Mamiya. He was not trying to pretend as if his messiah was still around.

Though if he was in this room, what would he have done?

"There is there is!" Yuuri said excitedly. "There is this one game Mamoru and I used to play with marbles when we're young. It's like dodgeball, only with marbles."

"There's also board games that uses marbles, like Chinese Checkers," Kagami lifted a circular board filled with holes forming a cross shape. "Or a traditional game called Congkak. It's in Ariga-san's box." Kagami gestured to the box beside Ariga. "You also need at least 2 people to play them."

Dodgeball, Chinese Checkers, Congkak…these words sounded more foreign to Ariga than any codes or ciphers he had ever encountered. Another thing more complicated, was his messiah, Mamiya Seiren.

If Mamiya was in this room, none of this would have happened. For they would never have met Kagami, and Ariga would never agree to carrying Kagami's box to begin with.

Ariga clenched the spherical item closely to him.

"Can you teach me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which a simple childhood game reveals a lot about our very troubled Messiah characters XD
> 
> Also I hope the transitioning between the present and the past is not confusing. I'm bad with grammar when it comes to jumping timelines (then again, my grammar is generally bad. Sorry!).


	4. Oven (Kuroko/Ariga)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuroko's guide to getting a workaholic to eat more.  
> Characters: Ariga Ryou, Kuroko, featuring Mamiya Seiren

Everyone knew Ariga was a workaholic.

In the morning, whilst everyone else were having breakfast, he would just grab a piece of bread and promptly go on his way. If there was no mission, he would spend day and night in the practice room, immersing himself in one mock mission after another. He was the only cadet that literally lived in the heavy coat most would only wear during work almost 24/7.

Because of that, Ariga did not really have time to spend waiting for his coat to be cleaned thoroughly. The coat was necessary for him for every single practice, as that would be the outfit he had to work with during mission. One of the most basics of being in this field of work was to get acquainted with every single component in the field: the environment, the people around you, and first and foremost, you yourself. Ariga curtly refused Kuroko's offer to collect his laundry and opted to wash the coat on his own. It was just stench of sweat, a thorough washing and drying should suffice. It's not as if his coat was blood soaked or had holes and scratches needing mending.

Unfortunately, the Church did not provide a dryer. If Ariga had to wait for it to air dry, he either had to spend the practice without it, or spend the day in his room with his messiah. Neither of them sound palatable to him. So he opted for the next best thing in the Church that he knew was capable of emitting heat. Oven.

Ariga knew the basics to an oven. People normally used that to bake cake. But no one baked anything here. In fact, no one cooked here, not even Kuroko, which made Ariga question why the Church even had a kitchen to begin with. Regardless, he should not be breaking any kind of moral code by using the oven to dry his coat. And so Ariga placed his coat in the oven and waited for it to dry.

"Ariga-kyun Ariga-kyun~"

Ariga knew that voice anywhere. Kuroko, the caretaker, was waving his broom as some kind of emergency signal somewhere outside the kitchen. "I can't get this thing. Help me out, Ariga-kyun?"

Kuroko never asked for his help before. But Kuroko was still his senior, and despite Ariga loathing the thought of having to spend his time doing trivial things, he obeyed the older man and walked towards him.

Ariga did not expect himself to be taking over Kuroko's chore of sweeping the floor.

Once done and Kuroko thanked him with a flying kiss that Ariga would rather not see, Ariga returned to take his coat from the oven. It should have been done by then.

It was done.

Not his coat.

But a cup noodle.

Ariga placed the cup noodle back into the oven with more haste than usual and left the kitchen. As much as possible, he would rather to stick to using one coat to maximize its utility until it could no longer be used. He could make an exception, just for now.

* * *

His original coat never returned, and Ariga once again found himself needing to wash his backup coat. As he walked towards the kitchen with a fully washed coat in hand, he prayed that he did not have to face such ridicule ever again.

When Ariga opened the oven, his feet were showered with cup noodles.

A total of seven, Ariga counted, and it had been a week since that last fiasco.

Ariga quickly placed his coat inside and turned the oven on, ignoring the cup noodles scattered around him. Then he sat before the oven. This time, he would guard the place to prevent the previous incident from reoccurring.

"Hyo hyo hyo, what's with this mess?"

Great, Ariga sighed. It's Kuroko again.

" **A.RI.GA-KYUN**! I never thought of you as someone who would litter!" Kuroko was towering over Ariga, one hand on his hip and the other hand shoving a broom towards Ariga. "I am _not_ cleaning this for you!"

"Could this wait until-"

" **NOW** , Ariga-kyun." Kuroko sounded unusually serious that Ariga could not find it in him to defy his senior. And so Ariga found himself sweeping the floor for the second time in the month.

Once done and after avoiding Kuroko's flying kiss, he dreadfully trudged towards the oven. He knew that he would not find his coat there.

There was no coat.

There was also no cup noodle.

There was a _cooked_ cup noodle, complete with the chopsticks.

Ariga wanted to slam the oven door close and walked away as far as possible but the thought of the cup noodles showering his feet prior to this stopped him. He did not want such incident to happen to this _cooked_ cup noodle. On top of that, Ariga was very against food wasting given how difficult it was for him to earn a loaf of bread in the past.

With a sigh, Ariga sat down and hurriedly finish the food. He thanked for the meal, threw away the empty cup, and left.

The next day, he found his coats on his bed, folded neatly and clean to the point of sparkling.

* * *

 

The next time Ariga needed to dry his clothes, he opted to hang it up in his room instead. While he waited, he chose to do some mental training in the practice room. He was certain that nothing could go wrong with this method.

When he returned to his room, there was his messiah, Mamiya, admiring the rope Ariga had used to hang his coat. And the thing that had replaced Ariga's coat.

"Ariga…why do you have a package noodle hanging up there?"

* * *

"Kuroko."

"Yeeesssssss?" Kuroko, who was sweeping the main hall of the Church, hummed in reply. He knew who was standing behind him. He knew what business had brought the young man here.

"Please return this to me tomorrow morning." Ariga handed over his neatly folded dirty coat to the caretaker.

"Sure thing, Ariga-kyun~" Kuroko gave a smirk.

Now, every time Ariga had his coat cleaned, which was every day, he would have them returned to him immediately the morning after breakfast, perfectly folded, and cleaned until the very last fibre.

Along with a cooked cup noodle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I really think I should get a different word generator. This is the kind of story I can think of when I have to work with 'Oven' as the prompt XD


	5. Eagle (Kaidoh/Yuuri)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not all hawks that hide their claws are talented.

The crazy ride had finally come to an end.

Kaidoh Eiri and Mitsumi Haku had successfully finished their graduation mission: to kill someone in the Church. Now they were standing in the hall, talking to each other with a grin so wide Yuuri felt his jaws aching. Mamoru, Ariga and Mamiya too were drowning in this festive air of their seniors' graduation ceremony. Yuuri was the only one standing at the corner of the room, his chest feeling constricted, his stomach lurching.

"Are you okay, Yuuri?"

Yuuri had not even realized Kaidoh approaching him. Glancing around, he could see Mitsumi approaching Mamoru and the rest probably in an attempt to draw attention from him, Yuuri sneered. "I'm okay, Kaidoh-san. I'm just…" _not used to this kind of thing_ , Yuuri wanted to lie.

"…confused." was what Yuuri said out loud. He immediately took it back. "I'm sorry Kaidoh-san, please do not mind my wordings."

Kaidoh was well known in the Church for having the sharpest eyes. Unfortunately for him, Kaidoh's skill was not limited to sniping. That, or Yuuri needed to take a class or two from Mitsumi on acting. "About what?" Kaidoh pursued.

"About you and Mitsumi-san." Yuuri could not prevent his feelings from flowing out."I don't understand how you and Mitsumi-san are looking forward to this graduation ceremony so much. After this, you will not be able to see Mitsumi-san anymore. I don't understand why are we celebrating your forever separation from your messiah. I don't understand how can you be smiling at that." Yuuri gritted his teeth, his voice soft yet strained.

"Hmm…" Kaidoh contemplated his answers briefly. "Tell me this. What animal would you associate me with?"

Yuuri turned his gaze back at Kaidoh. He blinked at the non sequitur. "I'm sorry..?"

"There's no right or wrong answer. " Kaidoh gave him a reassuring smile. "So just answer it honestly."

Yuuri looked behind him. Walls. He was cornered. No way to run.

So Yuuri began to think of an answer. He did not know his senior enough to associate him with any animal accurately. The closest thing he could think of would be, "Eagle." Yuuri said. "Because you are the best sniper in the Church."

"What a coincidence!" Kaidoh exclaimed, placing his arms inside the pockets of his coat. "I also think you're like an eagle."

"I-I'm sorry, Kaidoh-san. I don't see how this is relevant to-"

"Your eyes are sharp, not as a sniper, but for hacking." Kaidoh continued to explain despite Yuuri's attempt to change the topic. "But that's not the reason why I see you as an eagle."

Yuuri frowned. He wanted to explain himself, but decided to wait for his senior's explanation.

"Have you ever heard of the proverb 'A talented hawk hides its claws'?"

Yuuri nodded, uncertain of where the conversation was going.

"You're an eagle who is hiding his claws behind this lock called Shirazaki Mamoru." Yuuri's eyes flared up at the mention of his closest friend's name. Feeling heat boiling inside him at the implication to Kaidoh's words about his best friend, Yuuri glared at his senior, ready to defend.

Kaidoh raised both hands up as a gesture that he was not going on the offense. "You were asking how can Haku and I be smiling when today is the last day we're going to meet each other, right?"

"That's because I know, from today onwards, Haku can live his own life."

Yuuri turned his gaze from Kaidoh to Mitsumi who was still talking amicably to Mamoru and the rest. "His own…life?" Yuuri reiterated.

"His own life." Kaidoh reaffirmed. He continued after two beats. "No matter what he does, no matter where he is, I know for sure that he will live, just like how I am the person that can not die. "

"Of course, beyond that, it's also good riddance. I don't need to listen to his stupid alarm clock every morning anymore, and I don't have to bear with candy wrappers strewn around my room and even my bed and even have him sneaking into my bed every night and---"

Yuuri tuned out the moment Kaidoh started ranting about his messiah. He still could not understand how that was better than living together forever. Kaidoh picked up on Yuuri's hesitation.

"The eagle story is the second reason." Kaidoh ended his ranting prematurely. "When Haku and I are together, we are not using our abilities to the fullest, because we trust our messiah to cover for us during a pinch. We do and don't do certain things, because that's…what I think my messiah would have liked." The fake suicide, Yuuri noted quietly.

"When we are together, I am living a life I thought Haku would have liked. Now that we are going to be separated, we are living our own lives the way we want to, but we live for each other."

Kaidoh placed one hand on Yuuri's shoulder. "Yuuri, you grow up with your messiah Shirazaki since young. Your relationship are the longest, and the closest bar none. But precisely because of that, your claws are locked tighter than anyone else."

"I-"

"You would not have hacked into the Church's database if not for Shirazaki, correct?" Yuuri nodded hesitantly. "And you would not have come out of your room if not for Shirazaki." It was not a question, but Yuuri nodded anyway.

"Eiri!" Haku called from distance.

"I'm coming!" Kaidoh shouted back. He turned his attention back to Yuuri.

"Uh, so, in short, this graduation ceremony is the start of your second life, while your days in Church is your journey to finding that second life. Do not give up on life for Shirazaki, but live life on your own, kay?" Without waiting for an answer, Kaidoh gave Yuuri a pat on the shoulder and went to join his messiah. Yuuri could clearly hear Kaidoh complaining to Mitsumi for disrupting their conversation from where he was standing.

"Kaito?"

Yuuri's eyes lit up. Only one person called him that here. "Mamoru?"

"Everything's alright?" Mamoru gave a concerned look at his friend, and at Kaidoh Eiri.

Yuuri understood what Mamoru was implying and he smiled. "Everything's alright, Mamoru." He reassured with a smile as both he and his closest friend and messiah went to join the celebration of their seniors' graduation. He would treasure every time he spent in the Church with his messiah, with Mamoru. When the time came, and he hoped the time would never come, he would then learn the thing Kaidoh had said about 'living life on his own'.

 

 

BLINK BLINK!

 **A NEW MESSAGE** **  
****  
**

****SAVE ME** **

Yuuri turned off his computer setting and stuffed all the components into a oboe case, and took the case with him. Standing at the door, he gave one last look at the room he and Mamoru had spent many moments together. There was Mamoru, on his bed, sleeping soundly for he was knocked out cold. On Yuuri's bed was his messiah uniform folded neatly, and nothing else. "I'm sorry, Mamoru." Yuuri whispered to the room.

_It's not even our graduation ceremony yet._

_I'm sorry._  
  


******BIG BROTHER  
  
**

"I'm coming, Haruto."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is my speculation for the upcoming stage Akatsuki no Toki as to the reason why Kaito disappeared.  
> That being said, I really hope that Mamoru and Kaito will get a good ending. I mean, the 1st generation casts all get to graduate happily. It's about time someone from the 2nd generation get to graduate and live happily ever after~  
> (And now I bet another Messiah's going to die in the next stage XD)


	6. Bookcase (Reiji/Yasuchika and Misu/Amane)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amane Yasuchika might not remember his half brother at all, but his heart did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Some cussing. Because Amane is not Amane without cussing.

"I don't like libraries, Misu-san." Amane Yasuchika grumbled.

Misu Kimitoshi sighed. "Then you can stay outside."

"No." Amane's reply was quick.

Amane wasn't sure why he hated libraries. As he and Misu walked through the corridors of the Sector 4 building, he felt as if he had just swallowed a lump of stone that was now stuck in his stomach.

"I _really_ don't want to go, Misu-san." Amane tried again.

"Then-"

"No." Amane already knew what Misu was going to tell him. What was Amane expecting Misu to tell him anyway, he himself had no idea.

There were a couple of Sector 4 members scattered around the library, reading books, probably for some assignment. Misu told him that he was looking for some info on the upcoming World Reformation Treaty meeting or something like that, Amane didn't give a shit.

Though Amane had to give shit, because he had to find this certain file in this entire place filled with bookcases that reached to the ceiling making him felt like a David facing Goliaths. Misu told him the file was at the very top of the shelf because it's some kind of super duper important crap. Well great. On top of giving shit, he had to climb stuff. He thought libraries were the opposite word to sports or something.

With a scowl, Amane stepped on the ladder one by one, making his way up. The file was glaringly obvious, colored black and being the size of a dictionary. He guessed that was to be expected considering how much that thing fucked the world up. Still several steps away from the file, Amane decided he had enough of climbing, and opted to stretched one hand as high as possible to make up for the distance. Wrapping his fingers around the bottom part of the file, he yanked it out with too much force, it slipped from his grasp.

Amane's first instinct was to let the bloody file hit the ground. That was what he would normally do to things he didn't give shit about. Or maybe, since Misu's there, he'd use his reflexes to catch the file midway.

He saw the black file passing by him at the corner of his eyes. Amane's eyes widened.

Suddenly, Amane forgot how to stand on a ladder.

" _AMANE!!_ "

* * *

"Yasuchika."

A toddler Amane Yasuchika determinedly crawled towards a bookcase.

"…Yasuchika."

Amane latched his tiny hand on the lowest bookcase bar, and reached up to get a certain book. A certain book he wanted his brother to read to him again. He got the book!

Suddenly, the giant bookcase was about to swallow Amane whole.

"…YASUCHIKA!!"

A explosion like sound followed his brother's warning. The sound was so loud, it made Amane cry.

When Amane opened his teary eyes, he saw his brother's face staring at him.

"This will be unpleasant to you, but I will be touching you, and you shall give me a signal if that area is painful."

Amane did not understand why his brother started touching him here and there, but it felt funny at certain parts, so Amane started laughing.

"What is going on here, Reiji !?"

Amane immediately became silent. He knew that voice. That voice was bad! That person would make Amane felt in so much pain and nothing good ever come out of that voice and now he was trying to take Amane away from his brother!  Amane clutched his brother's white shirt tightly, trying his best to hide his lithe body behind his brother.

"Is that child causing trouble again? I know that child brings nothing but trouble."

Amane clung to his brother even closer. That man was scary, very scary. His brother extended his arm between him and the scary man and Amane felt slightly safer, but still scared.

"The object at fault here is the bookcase." Amane heard his brother said. He liked it when his brother started speaking a lot of things in that very cool tone. Amane could not understand a thing, but he felt as if he did. "To start with, that bookcase does not have a firm construction. The weight of the book is not spread appropriately to adjust to the design of the bookcase. There is no sufficient weight at the first row of the bookcase to compensate…"

"…and that is the reason why the bookcase has toppled." His brother concluded his explanation, still with that tone that made Amane feel like he understood the entire universe. "I suggest to have that bookcase replaced, father."

"I have more important things to take care of." Amane thought the scary man was mocking his brother, and Amane glared at the scary man. The scary man did not look at Amane at all, and disappeared from the place. Amane gave a small victorious smile.

Amane did not realize he still had the edge of his brother's shirt clenched tightly in his fist. But his brother did, and they sat there quietly until Amane did let go.

"Let's get out of here, Yasuchika."

He would want his brother to carry him out of the place, but they had tried that before, and his brother toppled. So Amane crawled out on his own, right behind his brother.

* * *

"Let's get out of here, Misu-san…"

When Amane opened his eyes, he was suspended in Misu's arms. He saw Misu giving him a confused look he saw papers flying around and he heard the sound of the ladder falling and the sound was so loud and it was too loud Amane could not stand it _he wanted out_.

"Alright, we'll get out." Misu replied to him calmly as if nothing had happened. He let Amane down from his embrace and went to collect the papers scattered around them as Amane watched silently. A sudden blitz zapped though his head.

Something was very, _very_ wrong with him being here.

Amane yanked the hair on his head, trying to get rid of the pain.

Amane could not remember why or what or how, but he knew the bookcases were too large the silence too deafening and Amane's eyes darted around trying to make sure that there was no scary man going to beat him for being there.

There was something, _someone_ missing before he could stand in this place ever again and Amane had no fucking clue what.

"Okay, let's go, Amane."

He followed Misu out of that godforsaken place, his hands twisting and squeezing the hem of his shirt throughout the entire way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Tsutsumi Reiji. I watched Messiah series slightly out of sequence (for some reason I missed the fact Shibi no Shou was a thing), and grew fond of Reiji at Hagane. Aaaaand that's the last of him. I want to see more of him TT.TT
> 
>  
> 
> Some things I'd like to ask about Reiji to anyone who knows:  
> 1\. Is he physically weak? In Shibi, he's always protected by the revolutionaries. He never fights at all, not even when his life is in danger (might be partially attributed to him not wanting to live that much), but it seems to suggest that he's incapable of fighting. Or he has some kind of sickness.
> 
> 2\. Is he immortal? It might be just a part of his character, but man he took a lot of shots from Mamiya before he's declared dead. Or maybe not immortal, but modified perhaps? Like a mix of human and G?
> 
> 3\. What's with his 'hand near ear' gesture? XD


	7. Souma Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Souma is always left in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate summary: an excuse to justify Mao's retirement from showbiz and subsequent development of Shuusuke's character in Messiah.

'The man whose Messiah always dies'

Gojou Souma had once wondered whether he had been infected with Mitsumi Haku's jinx.

First was Haruki.

It had hurt, when he found out that Haruki was a traitor. Yet, Souma still believed in Haruki. Souma refused to believe that the days they had spent together as messiah were mere act. Maybe not all, but some of those moments had to be genuine, and Souma dared to bet on his life and say that Haruki was a good person based on those few moments alone. He had wanted to hear it for himself, Haruki's motivation, before he decided whether Haruki was truly a traitor or not.

His first messiah was killed before he could do so. Right before his eyes.

Souma wished he had pulled his trigger a second faster.

His graduation mission with his second messiah, Shiba Shuusuke, was a very close reminiscence of his incident with Haruki. He pointed his gun to his messiah, but he did not pull the trigger. Someone else did. Thank heavens he did not have to witness his messiah being killed right before his eyes for the second time.

It was all just a misunderstanding. Shuusuke survived. Both of them managed to safely graduate from the Church. Happy ending.

Or not.

It was late at night when Souma returned to his apartment after his mission. The blinking of his computer immediately stood out in his pitch dark apartment. Souma recognized the pattern. A message, from Shuusuke! Forgetting to turn on the lights, Souma hurried to his computer to decrypt the message. Souma always looked forward to conversing with his messiah, something that had become a luxury after their graduation.

How odd, Souma noticed. Shuusuke had sent him a voice mail. With uneasiness running through him, Souma pressed the button.

" _Souma_." It was Shuusuke's voice. Souma jerked away from his computer. The last time Shuusuke had used that tone was during their confrontation on their graduation mission. Something was _definitely_ up. " _I need you to listen to me closely._ "

Souma was just about to yell at Shuusuke, or Shuusuke's voice mail and ask what the hell was going on. It seemed his messiah really knew him well. Taking a deep breath, he continued listening.

" _This will be the last time I can contact you_."

The feeling he had felt at the time he discovered Haruki's treachery and Shuusuke's supposed treachery crashed onto him at once. Shuusuke couldn't be-! No. Souma shook his head. Gritting his teeth, he let the voice mail continued.

" _Something's happening on my side, and…and that's all I can tell you._ " Souma could feel Shuusuke being on the verge of tears as he recorded this. He slammed his fists on his table.

"I will cease to exist from now onwards. You can try searching for me, but you will not find me." Upon hearing the challenge, Souma yanked his chair out, sat and immediately get cracking. The voice mail went silent as if Shuusuke knew what Souma was doing. Souma might not be the best at hacking, but being in this line of job had taught him a thing or two about finding those who refused to be found.

"Damn it!" Souma knew Shuusuke was a better hacker than him. It did nothing to alleviate his frustration. 

" _I'm really sorry, Souma_." Shuusuke's voice continued. The timing made Souma wanted to believe that Shuusuke was directly talking to him live. " _I wanted to tell you this in person if I can. I thought I have learnt my lesson about keeping secret from you and…apparently I have not. I'm really sorry_."

"Stop apologizing…" Souma pleaded, in the darkness, to the screen. This was not like Shuusuke. Shuusuke would not apologize so much.

" _You won't find me while I'm alive, but you will find me when I'm gone._ "

" _Goodbye, Souma._ "

The message automatically deleted itself immediately after, including the backup Souma had attempted to make. The computer screen slowly grew dimmer and dimmer, blending in with the darkness of the room, leaving Souma alone in the dark.

The computer started blinking again. It was a notification on a new mission. Souma let it continued blinking.

Souma slumped on the table, letting his head rest between his hands. First was Haruki, and now Shuusuke.

While Haku's messiahs were eliminated without his consent, Souma's was...

"The man whose messiah always leaves." Souma did not wish to make fun of Haku's issue. Yet considering how Haku managed to safely graduate with Eiri until now, Souma felt like he was the one that was actually jinxed.

It was unfair. Souma felt it was too unfair, for him to be living such a simple life while Haruki and Shuusuke were saddled with issues so big that they needed to get Souma out of the picture. He also knew, that there was nothing he could have done to help them. He could only trust in them.

" _You won't find me while I'm alive, but you will find me when I'm gone._ "

He had to trust Shuusuke. That was all he could do.

Souma might be left in the dark, but he refused to let the darkness swallow him. He would move on. And when his messiah came to find him, he would be there, waiting for him.

"We will meet again, Shuusuke, and it better not be your corpse!"

_If you need to find me, I'll be alive. That is the least I can do as your messiah._

Lifting his head off the table, Souma answered the notification on his computer, finally putting the blinking to a rest, and letting the room be swallowed by darkness once more.


	8. Duty (Sakai/Shuusuke)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do ghosts have a duty?

Hello. You can call me Sakai.

You probably know me better as Shiba Shuusuke's former messiah. That was pretty short living though.

I am not close with Shiba, despite you thinking otherwise upon seeing Shiba's reaction to my passing. It was honestly a surprise to me too. I never thought of us as that close of a comrade.

How can I, when I hated that guy's guts so much?

Shiba Shuusuke, someone who always thinks that he can exact justice in this filthy world. He might want to try applying that justice to himself first before preaching others, see if that can help him return to his former occupation as a high-profile prosecutor, and out of his current position as a ghost desperately trying to find purpose in the world by doing these dirty work only ghosts would want to do.

It was ironic. It was hypocritical. People who talk about how miserable they are, yet spending every second of their lives trying to make others more miserable; People who hate the world, yet are content pretending as if they are born with a smile sewn on their face. They kept on talking about their duty in life, as a citizen, as a parent, as a child, and yet they still willingly buy my products, desperately seeking an attempt to forget all of those things they just preached.

Hypocrites. A bunch of disgusting people that makes good, loyal consumers.

Shiba Shuusuke likes to preach the exact same words I've heard from my consumers before.

I wished I have access to at least the base ingredients. He would make a really good consumer- or so I had thought.

"You were a former drug dealer?" Shiba confronted me on one random afternoon in the library.

Drug dealer? I might not be a high-profile existence like you, but I was not that low. I created those things from scratch. I ran my own circle. Don't equate me to some lowly drug dealer who is only good for their mouth. "I was, but that was all in the past." I told him with a smile. Sakai is just your average friendly guy after all, nothing more. I also quickly stopped my attempt to search for new methods to create my product in this jail.

"Why would you do that?"

There he went with that accusatory tone. Everyone gives me that same tone at first. Even after trying my product, they will still give me that tone, while passing me some cash.

"I need the cash?" I went with my typical go-to answer. Ichijima must have sensed me snooping around trying to get back into my old trade, and is now sending my messiah to keep me on a leash.

_'What a shame to let such young talent waste in the prison. I believe I have a better position to offer you, but I will require you to leave behind your previous works. Without a trace.'_

While I did promise him that, it doesn't mean I can't start a new one. That man must have understood that implication as well. How cunning.

"I don't intend to judge you, but you are aware that what you did is against your duty as a citizen of this country, right?" Shiba still persisted with his questions. If he insisted to go on this topic, fine, I would entertain him.

"What is a citizen's duty?" Do tell me oh great prosecutor guy, who probably thinks you're above everyone else just because you know the law.

"Every citizen should be public spirited. He should not seek his self-interest and should always be ready to contribute his mite to the welfare of society." Shiba spoke as if he recited a phrase from the law book. "I am not aware of the type of drugs you have made, but I highly doubt it is in the interest of the welfare of the society."

No, it did satisfy public interest. There is no supply without demand. I made those products because people asked for them, because they were _interested_. I could have argued with him, but I decided against it. If I caused too much commotion, Ichijima would be the one to go back on his words, and not the other way around as I would like to have it. "Really? Then, let me ask you a question, if you don't mind of course."

When the society choose to pretend that you don't exist, to pretend that they do not see you dying at the side of the road, to only acknowledge your existence when it's beneficial to them,

when you are nothing but a living ghost,

"Do we have a duty?"

* * *

It was funny seeing how much my question affected my messiah. That day, he went completely silent, and left the room without saying anything. Ever since then, I constantly saw him digging through books  on every single one of his breaks, way more often than he usually did. While it was very entertaining to watch, it really limited my time to do my own research, so unfortunately I had to confront him and end this.

"I've been seeing you in the library quite often these days." I began.

"Yes." Shiba adjusted his glasses and turned to face me. "I have been doing some thinking about your question."

"Do you have the answer?" I was not interested to hear it, for I already have my own. There is no such thing as duty. Everyone always acts in their own self interest.

"I believe so. When you proposed the question to me, I was rather convinced that the answer is yes." I braced myself to listen to more empty preachings. "Even if this country does not recognize our existence, we are still born in this country, and therefore we are obliged to serve it the same way a citizen would." Yep, I expected this coming out from him, the same thing everyone preached.

"That is a false assumption." My ears perked up. "To be a citizen means that you are granted rights, that is the reason why you are obliged to be dutiful to the country in return. Our situation as Sector 5 cadets is starkly different. For our existence are not recognized, we are not granted any rights. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that SAKURA cadets are not tied to serve duty to the country." I frowned at his explanation. That was a really roundabout way to reaching to the same conclusion as mine. People may have these 'duties' but they will only follow it if it's in their self interest. Humans are selfish. It's that simple.

"However, that does not mean we are completely devoid of duty." I wanted to groan. Shiba spoke in the same manner politicians like to speak in. "If you take up a duty for yourself, you may be granted a right."

Oh, like how I was allowed to escape serving the next few decades imprisoned, in exchange of doing all these dirty work as a wannabe SAKURA member. Still doesn't justify why a ghost must care for a country that abandoned him. "Ah, I see." I tried to give the most enlightened expression I could muster, hoping that would end this needless conversation.

"Sakai." Shiba suddenly addressed me, his tone solemn. "I understand how difficult it is to live without an identity." No kidding. I don't even have a name I can go by. No home. Nothing. My work is what defines me. " That is why, as your messiah, I want us to successfully graduate from the Church. Unlike a SAKURA cadet, SAKURA members are much more scarce which makes their presence highly valued. That is your right, and that is something that can only be gained if you take your duty as SAKURA cadet seriously."

In the end, as long as you help people satisfy their self interest, you get something in return.

But he said it in such a way that fooled me into believing that it was worth giving up my attempt to escape the Church and return to my old trade.

"I understand, Shiba."

In hindsight, maybe I should not have. Then I would not have met my death prematurely. A citizen's duty is to take care of other's wellbeing, said the one who left me to die in an explosion.

And because of that, I am now nothing, but a literal ghost. Not even worthy of being remembered by my messiah.

But I thought only ghosts who have attachment to the world are left wandering. Why am I still here then?

"When I graduate, I will give it my all to fight for SAKURA members' rights. That is the least I can do to honor my dead friend, and my pledge as an ally of justice."

No, Shiba can't be…! That's not how humans...!  
  


No…  
  


I'll take it back.  
  


You're not a hypocrite, Shiba Shuusuke. You never were.  
  


I'm sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically Haruki and Sakai are part of the 1st generation characters, even though Haruki's name only got mentioned a bit in Hakugin and Sakai's existence seems to be completely forgotten in subsequent works.
> 
> Also after some painful searching, I found that Sakai's full name is...Sakai. This guy is very very suspicious...so I tried giving him a bit of characterisation here. Hopefully it's not too contrived.
> 
> Writing in 1st POV is causing me to mess up my grammar. I'm sorry if there're very glaring errors in the work that I can't fix.
> 
> On a completely unrelated note, I can't believe I manage to post one week in a row! Yay! I hope I can keep up this constant schedule. And thank you also to those who are still reading and enjoying the story till now. I hope it's been a good piece that help to explore more about the Messiah characters.


	9. Sandwich (Ichijima/Kamikita)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamikita's guide to getting senpai to notice you- you shoot him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure whether Ichijima's the guy that started the whole SAKURA thing, or is it someone else. For this chapter, let's assume Ichijima is just a member, and he too had to go through graduation and all that.

Ichijima Haruumi held the record as the number one SAKURA cadet that had been paired with the most number of messiahs. You see, Ichijima had this bad habit of driving his own messiah away from him. Those who had been paired with Ichijima had all approached the higher ups to be reassigned, giving reasons like 'He doesn't even care about me, he just uses me!' , ' He refuses to get along with me no matter what I do' or 'He doesn't even acknowledge my presence!'. Ichijima was not the only cadet who loathed the concept of messiah, but he was the only one who actively act against it.

So it was not a surprise that when the news that Ichijima had been shot by his sixth messiah came around, the first thing everyone did was to throw a party. They showered praise on the hero who had done it, Ichijima's sixth messiah who was only assigned a week ago.

Kamikita Ryuuji could tell just how much everyone in the Church hated Ichijima. He was not called into the office to be scolded or to be reassigned a new messiah. He was being thrown a party, for shooting his messiah. Not even completing a mission that involved saving Japan from terrorist groups normally warranted this kind of celebration.

Even so, in Kamikita's own eyes, what he had done was in the wrong. So he excused himself midway through the party to go and visit his messiah in the infirmary. He knocked on the door twice despite knowing that he would not get any response. If he had, Kamikita would not have needed to go to this extent. After three seconds of obligatory waiting, Kamikita opened the door.

The infirmary was just a slightly altered version of every cadets' bedroom, right from the dim lighting to the plain black wallpaper. The only difference being the lack of computer which was taken over by a cabinet filled with medications. Kamikita was still a newcomer to the Church, but he got the impression that the cadets here did not really have a use for the infirmary. Either they treated the light wounds themselves, or they died.

Ichijima was rested on the bed on the left holding a book on his lap, his other hand bandaged from the shoulder. Ichijima pretended not to notice Kamikita's presence as usual, though Kamikita swore he saw his eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly.

"I got you a sandwich?" Kamikita placed the sandwich on the bedside table and took a seat on the bed across. Usually one would bring fresh fruits for this kind of visitation, but getting a sandwich from a convenience store was quicker. It contained tomatoes too. Besides, Ichijima would probably prefer something easy to eat with one hand.

Ichijima still refused to tear his attention away from his book. Kamikita sighed. "I suppose what the other cadets said about you was right," Kamikita thought out loud, unwrapping the other sandwich he had brought for himself. "That you would not acknowledge your messiah even when you're shot."

"Is that the reason why you shot me?"

Kamikita nearly choked on his sandwich. Ichijima was there, looking away from his book, staring at him with an indignant look. He finally got Ichijima to notice him! Kamikita would have celebrated victory if not for his flaring nostrils after the food went down the wrong chute.

"N-no, not exactly." Kamikita tried to explain between heaves. "You would always avoid my attacks during practice, so I thought of giving that shooting idea a try. I didn't expect for it to hit."

"And I expected you to shoot behind me, not at me. In case you are unaware, cadets are not allowed to shoot at each other during practice." Ichijima returned his gaze back to his book.

"I'm really sorry for that, but that's not the main point here." Kamikita said as he chew on his sandwich. "Why won't you talk to me?"

Without looking away from his book, Ichijima replied, "What is there to talk?"

Kamikita made sure the food went down the correct pipe this time. "My past. Your past. The mission. Anything. We're messiah."

"Your past, hm?" The interest Ichijima showed in his voice differ greatly from his platonic expression. "Either you are a murderer, someone in your family is a murderer, or you are framed for a murder. One of those porn magazines you gave me on your second day would surely provide greater entertainment." Kamikita smiled sheepishly at his first attempt to get Ichijima to notice him.

But Kamikita wasn't sure he would call his case murder. Sure, he was charged with one, however, "It was assisted suicide."

"That belongs to the first category then: you are a murderer." Ichijima simply concluded, intending to bring the conversation to an end.

"No, it is different." Kamikita refused to get the hint. "You can't murder a living dead."

"Vegetative state." Ichijima rephrased, still looking at his book.

"No." The refutal caught Ichijima's attention, who glanced at Kamikita from the corner of his eyes. "You know how depression is not acknowledged as a form of illness in this country?"

Ichijima snapped his book shut. "That is indeed."

"My job was to trim those numbers, to create a more productive society." Kamikita explained while still eating his sandwich. "Long story short, the group got caught, and I was fortunate enough to be brought here instead."

Ichijima scoffed. "You are a self-righteous murderer."

"I am not." Kamikita's declaration stopped Ichijima from returning to his book. "Those people whom Ihad shot… They behaved like you did. I gave them, as well as you you, three seconds to get away from my aim. Yet they didn't. _You_ didn't."

If Ichijima had been staring at his book, Kamikita would have thought he was pretending to ignore him again. But Ichijima was staring right at him.

"Why is that?" Kamikita pursued.

Ichijima did not reply. Instead, he reached out to the sandwich on his table with his good hand, and attempted to open it. The tearing sound of plastic wrapper filled in the silence. Ichijima brought the sandwich to his mouth and took a bite. He gave himself time to chew properly and swallow before he addressed the other person in the room who had been waiting patiently and eating his own sandwich.

"Bribery 101: When a subject is placed in a compromising situation, the subject is more prone to either accept or resort to bribery," Ichijima began. He lifted up the hand holding a sandwich to prove his point. "You will have to do better than giving me a pile of porn magazines, shooting me, and giving me a piece of sandwich."

Kamikita took that as a challenge. "Then you'll tell me your story?"

"You will have to earn it." Ichijima smirked.

From then onwards, Ichijima found a _pile_ of sandwich on his bed _every_. _single_. _day_. He was certain Kamikita was trying to follow his advice on bribery, the way he had followed his friend's advice to shoot him.

"Ichijima, you're back!" Kamikita greeted as he entered their room. Ichijima saw pieces of sandwich peeking out of the shopping bag Kamikita was carrying. He turned to look at the pile of sandwich he still had on his bed. He could have adjusted his demands so that Kamikita would be buying him things he actually wanted, but Ichijima was certain he would not be receiving them in moderation.

What a guy, this Kamikita Ryuuji. It made Ichijima _want_ to have a messiah.

"I think this is a good time for me to tell you my story."

Thus marked the end of the game Ichijima had been playing with all his past messiahs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really intrigued regarding the characterization of Ichijima vs Kamikita.  
> Ichijima is presented as someone akin to a savior, although a bit twisted and rough in his way. Kamikita is very straightforward in his way of recruiting cadets. But on top of that, he also recruit very interesting people. He recruited a guy who was framed for murder, a guy who hacked into the church to save his friend, a former assassin and the child of a terrorist couple. I can understand Mamoru and Ariga, Yuuri may or may not have been a good choice since technically he still have a shot to live as a normal citizen, and Mamiya…Kamikita might have brought him in to give a second chance or a protection, but he unknowingly brought the LEADER of a terrorist group into the ranks. And now Yuuri's gone too.  
> In other words, Kamikita's socially inept at judging people XD
> 
> Also, I'm sorry that I keep on making up pasts for the characters and if it ends up being OOC. It's hard to guess the kind of pasts the less major characters have since their screentime is usually done to advance plot rather than to explore their background.


	10. Sky (Mamoru/Kaito)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't play in the rain

"Mamoru?"

"Hm?"

"Let's play after school, the three of us!" The primary school Yuuri Kaito went up to his friend's desk.

"No, Kaito." Shirazaki Mamoru replied while arranging his books into his bag. "It looks like it's going to rain soon. Our parents will scold us if they catch us playing in the rain."

"It won't rain." Kaito grinned.

Mamoru could guess the reasoning behind his friend's confidence. "You hacked into the weather forecast site again, didn't you?"

"It's just a small thing." Kaito said dismissively. "It's a pretty trusted site, and it says it won't rain today, just cloudy. So we can play!"

"Can't we play another time?" Mamoru tried. He, too, wanted to go out and play. He trusted Kaito's information. But he did not want to make his or Kaito parents' angry should things go wrong.

"Come on, Mamoru~" Kaito persuaded. "Haruto is really looking forward to playing with you again. It'll be fun!"

Mamoru glanced out the class window from where he was seated. He would have preferred a clear, blue sky without a single trace of clouds. Right now, he could only see clouds on the sky. But the sky was pretty bright, and the clouds were puffy white and not dark grey…

"Okay." Mamoru relented with a smile.

"Great!" Right after the decision was made, the bell rang, marking the end of their break. "Haruto and I will be waiting at the usual place then!" Kaito said before he went back to his seat. 

"I'll be there!"

* * *

"Kaito?"

" _Hm?_ "

"Do you want to go to the sea, the three of us?"

Ever since they entered junior high school, finding a common time to play together grew increasingly difficult. They could not even spend time together during summer holiday, being too busied with homework, club activities, or part time jobs.

Today was the last day of their summer holiday.Mamoru did not want to let it end just like that.

"The sky is very clear today." Mamoru looked out from the window of his bedroom as he talked to the phone. "I'm sure it'll be fun!"

 _We shouldn't go brother! Teacher says that we can't go to the sea alone!_ " _Hm…you're right Haruto. Let me just check._ " Mamoru could hear the sound of keyboard typing from the receiving end. " _I've done a bit of checking, Mamoru. The sky is predicted to be clear today. Sea level is also normal. There shouldn't be a problem._ "

"Then we'll meet at the usual place?"

 _I don't think this is a good idea, brother…_ " _It's okay Haruto. It'll be fun. And you get to see Mamoru too. It's been a while since the three of us meet. Though, Mamoru?_ "

"Yeah?"

" _It's rare, for you to be the one inviting us to a playdate_."

Mamoru laughed. "I guess I just really want to meet with you guys, like the old times."

" _I really miss those times too._ " Kaito replied. " _Haruto and I will be there soon. See you there!_ "

There was absolutely no trace of clouds in the sky. To be playing in the sea under such beautiful sky, it sounded like a perfect summer holiday from a video game. Mamoru couldn't wait. "Don't be late!"

* * *

"Kaito, I'm home."

"Ah, Mamoru! You can put the food right by the door, as usual."

Mamoru placed the tray of food down on the floor. It had two bowls of ramen, Kaito's favorite, for Kaito and…Haruto to eat.

"How was your work today?" Mamoru heard Kaito asking from inside his room. It was weird, to be hearing Kaito's voice, and yet all he could see was this piece of wooden door. There was a time in the past when the three of them played inside that room. Now… Mamoru found it difficult to imagine how his friend had been living his days inside.

"I want to hear about it too. That peculiar co-worker of yours, Takano, was it?"

That non-sequitur way of replying could only mean one thing: _Haruto_.

…Maybe it was for the best to not able to see Kaito face to face. Mamoru sat down and leaned against the door.

"Takano is a really funny guy." Mamoru began, trying for a moment to imagine that he was there inside the room with Kaito and Haruto, to pretend as if that incident did not happen. "Today we had a firedrill. But then-" Mamoru stopped. _But it was raining, so Takano said that there's no need for a firedrill since the fire's all extinguished and so he was scolded by the higher ups for disrupting the drill_ \- was how the story supposed to go.

"Mamoru?"

After the incident, Mamoru found it difficult to talk about the weather. Kaito never seemed to ask him about it too. There was a time when a relatively strong typhoon attacked, and it caused the roof of Kaito's house to leak. All Kaito asked him was for a bucket, nothing else. Maybe Kaito had obtained his information online, Mamoru decided to settle with that reason.

They used to talk about the weather every single day. After all, the weather determined whether they would be playing or not.

And now…

"Yeah...Mamoru? How did the story go?"

Mamoru shook his head. He should not make his friend worry unnecessarily. "Ah, so Takano decided to bring a fire extinguisher from home." Mamoru laughed to make his story more convincing. He was relieved when he heard muffled laughter coming from the room.

"I know right! That Takano guy is so funny!" Mamoru heard Kaito said, to the person Kaito believed to be in the room with him. It always pained Mamoru, yet still, he played along.

"A…anything else you want to hear about, Haruto?"

Those beautiful days they had spent playing under the scorching sun…The sky was very clear outside, and yet.

Where had those days gone to?

* * *

"Mamoru?"

"Hm?"

"It's been a while since we walk together under the sun."

Mamoru could feel his stomach lurched from the statement. It reminded him of the days Kaito locked himself in his room, those days of lies and delusion. He did not want to return to those days anymore.

"Y-yeah…" Mamoru managed a reply. Kaito didn't say anything to that, so they continued to walk in silence.

Mamoru could feel his shirt clinging onto his skin because of sweat. It was hot outside. Mamoru looked up to the sky. It was summer, and the sky was empty save for the sun. No wonder Mamoru felt like he was being fried alive, and they were wearing normal civilian outfit. He could not imagine walking out in this weather with his SAKURA uniform.

"Where are you taking me, Kaito?" Mamoru decided to ask. He would rather spend the rest of his days indoor given this weather.

"It's a really nice weather, isn't it?"

Mamoru halted at the non sequitur. "Kaito?"

Kaito, too, stopped in his tracks. He turned to face Mamoru. "The three of us would usually play outside on these days, right?"

Mamoru could not tell where his friend was going with this. He knew that Kaito had not fully recovered from the loss of his brother, he didn't expect Kaito to. But he had not seen a relapse ever since Kaito joined the Church, until now.

"Kaito, are you-?"

Kaito cut him off. "Next time, when the weather is this nice, let's go to the sea again, just the three of us." With that, Kaito turned his back and continued walking, leaving Mamoru behind.

Mamoru could feel his chest constricting at Kaito's words, blood suddenly rushing to his head and his heart beat deafening his ears. No, Mamoru told himself. He took several deep breaths. Kaito might not have fully recovered, but Kaito was a lot better now. A slight relapse or two did not mean Kaito was going back to his past condition. It was just a slight lapse, nothing more, Mamoru convinced himself.

Mamoru also tried to convince himself, that this clear sky they were walking under now, held no significance whatsoever.

* * *

"Kaito…"

 

_"Kaito!"_

_"…"_

_"Come out of your hiding, Kaito!"_

_"…"_

_"Let's go back! It's starting to rain!"_

_"…"_

_"Come on Kai-! Gah! It's getting heavier!! Game over Kaito, come out!"_

_"…"_

_"Let's get you sheltered first, Haruto. I'll go and look for your brother."_

 

Mamoru kicked the last thug standing and slammed him against the wall. The sound of body hitting concrete could still reach his ears despite the loud wailing of the rain. The body slumped on the floor, causing a huge splash that soaked Mamoru's already drenched outfit even more.

 

_"Why are you all so drenched?! Didn't I tell you not to play in the rain?"_

_"I'm sorry mom. We won't do it again."_

 

Mamoru looked down. A number of bodies laid unconscious on his feet. Given the amount of strength he still had left when he fought them, Mamoru should have until tomorrow morning to rest in this alley. He sat on the corner and huddled, trying to preserve whatever body heat he still had left. For the three days Mamoru had been out on his search, it had been raining endlessly, as if another typhoon was coming.

 

_"Thanks to you, we got scolded."_

_"But it was fun, wasn't it, Mamoru?"_

_"Kaito, I swear if you ever take me out to play in the rain again,"_

 

"...I'll drag you back home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm trying a new style here again: a bunch of dialogues with no names XD I hope it's not confusing.  
> And it's once again my take on the upcoming stage play Akatsuki no Toki, based on the summary alone. I really can't wait for it to be released !


	11. Thank you (Amane/Kagami)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's a phrase used to express gratitude to someone-"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set right after Shinku no Shou

"We're glad that Amane's doing alright." Shirazaki Mamoru said in behalf of the other cadets. Right after the chase against Hanged Man and The Tower, Misu Kimitoshi and the SAKURA cadets rushed Amane into the hospital. Mamoru did not know the details, but apparently Amane had been going through stressful times which caused him to be malnourished. He had known those two back from his days in Sector 4, and even if they were former terrorists, they were a friend in Shirazaki's eyes. A hero even, for saving him from execution.

Yuuri placed a hand on Shirazaki's shoulder as a gentle reminder. "We should go soon, Mamoru."

Shirazaki nodded. "The report. Right." He bowed towards Amane and Misu, who stood at Amane's bed. "Please excuse us. If you don't mind, we will come for another visit."

"Sure." Misu's answer was curt, but Shirazaki knew it was sincere. He smiled. "Let's go." He told the rest of the cadets and led the way out of the room. Yuuri immediately followed behind, and then Ariga.

Kagami Itsuki stayed where he was standing.

Ariga was the first to notice this, and turned to give a questioning look at his messiah. Kagami held up his hand, showing five fingers. _Five minutes_. Ariga understood the complicit message and closed the door behind him, leaving Kagami alone with the two.

"What is it?" Misu asked, quick to the business.

On instinct, Kagami took a lollipop from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. "Can I speak to Amane alone?" He asked, his voice slightly muffled due to the candy in his mouth.

Misu did not answer, but Kagami could tell from the glare he was receiving that his request was out of the question. He was just about to brace himself to say what he needed to say with Misu around, when Amane suddenly spoke up.

"It's okay, Misu-san."

The voice was very raspy and croaked, as if coming from a throat that had been screaming throughout his entire life. Kagami watched Misu agreeing with Amane hesitantly before leaving the room, not forgetting to glare at Kagami on his way out. _Touch a hair on his head and I'll kill you_. Yep, Kagami got the message loud and clear.

The door snapped shut. He was alone with this person named Amane Yasuchika.

"I suppose I should be honored for you to trust me." Kagami began. It was true. Amane had recoiled when Hanged Man in disguise of Ariga approached him. Regardless of the emotional baggage Amane was carrying, the man still had a keen eye to distinguish between a friend and an enemy.

"What do you want?" It was probably meant to sound annoyed. With Amane's current condition, it sounded like a plea to get Kagami out of the room as fast as possible instead.

Well, Kagami was also not the type who liked to engage in idle chat. He might as well get to the point. Kagami took out the lollipop from his mouth and looked straight into Amane's eyes. He bowed. "Thank you."

There. Done. Kagami popped the candy back and headed towards the exit.

"Wait!" Amane shouted, stopping Kagami right before the door.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The definition of 'Thank you'? That did not seem like what Amane was asking, yet he gave its answer anyway. "It's a phrase used to express gratitude to someone-"

He could hear Amane groaned. That's one wrong then. Before Kagami could try another answer, Amane decided to ask again, this time more specific.

"Why?"

Ok, this one Kagami had the answer. He turned around to look at Amane. "If Amane-san wasn't there, I wouldn't be convinced that Ariga-san was an impostor. You saved me. Thank you."

Kagami waited for another question. None came. He saw Amane's eyebrows furrowing, his gaze trained on the white blanket covering his lap. He saw Amane's fists scrunching up the blanket and lifted it to cover his face and he heard a choke and- _holy crap._

_Did he just make Amane cry?!_

There was no time for Kagami to find the answer. He heard the sound of door being slammed open by excessive force behind him. Before he could comprehend the situation, he was thrown off balance by Misu who pushed him out of the way.

Misu stood before Amane's bed in a protective stance. Shirazaki, Yuuri and Ariga were standing at the door. And Kagami was on his butt on the floor, being attacked by all these questioning and suspicious glances when he himself did not know what was going on. Worse, his lollipop was knocked out of his mouth during his fall.

"Look," Kagami raised both arms in surrender position. He had better explained himself fast. "I didn't do anything. I did not touch a hair on Amane, I did not even come within arm's length!"

No one in the room bought what Kagami had just said. He could hear Amane sobbing behind the blanket he used to cover himself, and Misu looked like he was one word away from kicking Kagami square in the face.

Kagami did not want anyone to know about this. That was why he even asked Misu to leave the room. He looked at Amane, hoping he would help to clarify the situation, but clearly the man's not going to put down that blanket anytime soon. So Kagami settled for the next best thing he could think of: gambling.

"Amane-san, do you want some lollipop?"

Everyone looked at Kagami as if he was crazy, but Kagami did not pay any attention to that. He saw Amane slowly lowering down the blanket from his face, bloodshot eyes staring at Kagami. When the blanket was fully lowered, however, Kagami smiled in victory. Kagami saw something else in Amane's face, something that made him dare to stand up, walked towards Misu, and placed a single red lollipop on Misu's hand before he left. Misu accepted it, and the rest of the SAKURA cadets did not say a thing, because they all had seen the same look on Amane's face.

Amane was smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, random pair day. The bane of my existence XD  
> I was panicking over this pair since I couldn't think of a single common ground- until I remembered Shinku no Shou is a thing.
> 
> In a way, thank you for you readers who stick to this ficlets until now! Almost two weeks have passed, the number of chapter has also hit double digits, and even the kudos has reached double digits!   
> It has also been a thing that's keeping my morning busy, which is a whole lot better than whatever I used to do for my mornings.  
> I hope I can maintain this!


	12. Hero (Mamoru, Eiri, Haku)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being paired with Ariga, Shirazaki questioned some of the Church's rules.

When Kamikita announced the pairings for the new cadets, Shirazaki could feel his heart skip a beat.

"Shirazaki Mamoru shall be paired with Ariga Ryou."

If it was simply a matter of being paired temporarily, Shirazaki could take that. Kamikita did mention that they were just assigned a 'temporary messiah'.

However, when his closest friend Yuuri Kaito spoke out against it, Shirazaki realized that there the deeper, more grave implication to this assignment.

_'Sakura members will not aid / rescue another Sakura member who has failed in their mission'_

_'Sakura members will not become friends or lovers'_

Should Yuuri get into trouble, Shirazaki whose messiah was Ariga would not be allowed to.…Shirazaki heaved a sigh, his breath slightly shaky. This was just a temporary assignment. He looked at Yuuri's back getting further from where he was standing, and he remembered, that there was a time when he could not physically see Yuuri at all.

Shirazaki clenched his fists.

He would risk anything to protect him.

"Something wrong, Shirazaki?"

Shirazaki looked up to the person interrupting him. It was his senior, Kaidoh Eiri with his messiah Mitsumi Haku at his side.

"No, I-" For a moment, Shirazaki contemplated whether to openly share his thoughts or not. He might as well, since he doubted he would get the answer from anyone else. "Actually, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." Kaidoh looked like he was more than happy to help. His smile eased Shirazaki's conscience slightly.

"If…If I go out to save a cadet that is not my messiah, what kind of punishment will we get?"

Shirazaki avoided mentioning names, but it was not a secret that he and Yuuri were childhood friends. The way Kaidoh's expression changed from one of curiosity to one of understanding showed that. To Shirazaki's surprise, Kaidoh broke into a grin.

"Nothing!" Hearing Kaidoh's answer made Shirazaki wonder if he had just asked a truly stupid question.

Kaidoh went on to say, "You're talking about the rules, right? You can pretty much ignore them."

"But-"

"Looong looong time ago," Shirazaki was taken aback by Mitsumi who joined the conversation, while Kaidoh looked like he was ready to bolt out of the room depending on what came out next from his messiah's mouth. "There was a friend of ours who got captured by the enemy. We and his messiah went out to save him. The end."

"That's it?!" Kaidoh retorted.

The use of the word 'friend' in Mitsumi's explanation did not go unnoticed by Shirazaki.

"Well, Ichijima explicitly prevents us to do that." Kaidoh offered more details. "But we went out and did it anyway. Ichijima didn't say anything about it when we return."

"You forgot to mention that Ichijima was our version of Kamikita." Mitsumi whispered loudly to his messiah.

"I know that!" Kaidoh retorted again. Shirazaki watched through the scene quietly and smiled. He wished that there would come a time when he could do that with his messiah, whether it would be Ariga Ryou or his friend.

"Anyway, the rules are there, but whether you want to follow it or not is up to you. So, if Yuuri is captured by the enemy, go save him!" The mentioning of name by Kaidoh took Shirazaki by surprise. Shirazaki smiled.

"Even if it's not Kaito, I'll go and save them." He said with a smile full of determination.

* * *

"Well, I hope you guys will get used to being here." Kaidoh gave Shirazaki a pat on the shoulder before he turned to leave the place. "What are you doing? Let's go, Haku."

"I'll join you in a bit." Mitsumi replied,  taking over Kaidoh's position before Shirazaki. Mitsumi waited until his messiah was out of range before he spoke with a very solemn expression that did not fit his childlike features.

"Shirazaki, if you have to choose between your current messiah Ariga, and your childhood friend Yuuri, who will you choose?"

Shirazaki froze. To be forced to choose between someone he had responsibility to and someone he hold very dear, there's no way he could-!

"Don't answer now." Mitsumi said preemptively before Shirazaki could think of an answer. He heard Mitsumi murmured something under his breath, but all he could discern was 'don't know'.

"If I may ask," Shirazaki could feel cold beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "Why did you ask this question?"

Mitsumi looked up to the ceiling, to the areas around them, everywhere except on Shirazaki. Shirazaki felt that his senior was looking at something he could not see, a fragment of memory. Perhaps it was of the person Kaidoh had mentioned in his story, the tale of the one that got captured and was saved.

He did not know that person used to have a different messiah. He did not know that person was forced to be paired with a new messiah. He did not know that person was not able to save his first messiah.

Mitsumi found his answer, and it was something that Shirazaki knew deep in his heart, but did not wish to hear nonetheless.

"You can't save everyone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, every single one of the Church's rules have been broken in one way or another.
> 
> 1\. Sakura members will hold their silence in protection of the Church. (Just how many traitors does the church have until now?)  
> 2\. Sakura members who leave / graduate from the Church will have no contact with the Church. (Tell that to Souma. And now HakuEiri is coming back)  
> 3\. Sakura members will not aid / rescue another Sakura member who has failed in their mission. (Where to even start with this one)  
> 4\. Sakura members will not become friends or lovers. (Do they really expect everyone to only cling onto their messiah and never ever socialize with anyone else, at all?)
> 
> I feel that when Messiah Project comes to an end (though I wish it will continue forever), SAKURA or Sector 5 as a whole will fall. It's like a dystopian system that is doomed to fail; its rules are shaky, and its people are unhappy.  
> With the upcoming stage being advertised as 'the church's system has been hacked', I hope this is not going where I fear it is...


	13. Moth (Takano alone)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's game over for Takano Yuuta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also set after Shinku no Shou

_"This will be our last contact."_

 

Takano Yuuta opened the door to his apartment. He was used to living alone for years, but then came those two and now Takano felt as if his house could not get any emptier. Funny, considering how those two behaved as if they did not exist in the house. Amane spent his days isolating himself in his closet, and Misu stayed close by unless he had something else to do. If anything, it made Takano felt like he was hosting a patient and his family.

It…wasn't a bad thing though.

 

_"The one who killed Tsutsumi Takaya was Amane."_

 

His footsteps sounded louder than usual. Takano could hear the rustling of his uniform fabric as he walked to his room. 

He remembered their first confrontation, how he had begged Misu to help save Mamoru. Ah, even his nose still hurt at the thought. That damn Misu really liked to aim for his nose…

Takano knew he was playing with fire. If he was caught associating-no, begging for a favor and collaborated to go against the law together with former terrorists, even if it was just for his best friend, he was sure to get axed. It might even be him taking Mamoru's place on the death row, Takano shivered at the thought.

Now that hindsight's 20/20, Takano still had no idea why he had done what he did. But he did not regret coming to know those two, as much as he could not stand Amane.

 

_"Before, we were former terrorists."_

 

They made Takano realized, that the world is not black and white as the police department would like to paint it as. A terrorist may be the good guy while the head of the police department may be the bad guy. They made him aware that there was a lot of things going on in the country that the department was not telling him, or anyone else for that matter. It made Takano scared, of the future, and of his life should he continue on this path. At the same time, Takano had never been closer to fulfilling his dream: 'I want to protect'.

Saving Mamoru was what forced him to join this game. But Takano stayed on his own volition.

 

_"That is no longer the case."_

 

They also made Takano realized, that he did not care whether they were former terrorists or real terrorists. Misu definitely had a good heart, though he couldn't say the same for Amane.

It was always Misu and Amane. There was no place for him to begin with.

 

_"Do not associate with us anymore."_

 

Like a moth fatally attracted to a candle flame, it was prepared for destruction.

But the flame extinguished itself.

 

_"Thank you for all your help."_

 

 

Just right after his heart finally came to an ease knowing that Mamoru was alive and well somewhere out there, Misu and Amane just had to-!

Takano did not want to be protected.

He wanted to protect!

When Takano went to plead for Misu's help, Misu had asked him: 'Why didn't you save him yourself?'

He _wanted_ to help. It was his job to protect for heaven's sake!

But,

He could not save Mamoru from execution.

He could not protect Amane when those Russian guys burst into his apartment. On top of that, _he_ was held hostage.

What makes him think he could save Amane and Misu now?

 

_"Goodbye."_

 

Takano knew he's powerless.

That was why Mamoru had left him out. That was why Misu and Amane left him now.

Takano closed the door of his room behind him with a firm snap.

 

It's game over for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just when I start to grow fond of Takano and his dynamics with Misu Amane, he's taken out. Unless he's going to be some surprise character, I don't see his name in neither the upcoming stage nor the movie.
> 
> I think I have a propensity for liking characters that have very limited screen time TT.TT


	14. Mamiya Seiren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The life of Mamiya

Mamiya Seiren. A violin prodigy who had won numerous awards. He was especially selected to perform in the very important World Reformation meeting, before audiences from all over the world.

And the son of a terrorists couple.

His parents had never told Mamiya of their true occupations. Unfortunately, Mamiya was blessed with superior hearing. Even if he was a mere child, he could understand what is good, and what is bad.

He could hear it. 'Kill' and 'burn' and other evil whispers from his parents' room. The words haunted him like a curse, following him even when his parents were not around. It's disgusting.

But not violin. Violin was clean. The sound a violin produced was one that healed, that cleansed one's mind. While the music lasted, Mamiya was not the child of a terrorist. He was just a normal child with a violin in hand. Violin healed him.

So he thought, maybe, if he let the world hear this music, the world would too be healed. He thought he could prevent people from being like his parents, from being like _him_.

Innocent. Hopeful. Naive. Mamiya continued to practice, day by day, morning until night. He received many opportunities to perform in front of many audiences, and before long earned himself fame as a young violin prodigy.

Even so, his parents were always absent in his performances, every single one of them.

Was his music not good enough?

Was it not good enough to heal their darkness?

Mamiya continued to play, until he reached a point where his performance was good enough to be sought for the World Reformation Assembly. A performance before hundreds or even thousands of audiences from all over the world. On top of that, his parents were going to watch his performance for the first time!

Go with a bang, was how the expression went. It was indeed Mamiya's best performance yet.

And it was his last.

Seeing the captivating view of the audiences before him turning into a sea of flames, the lifeless corpses of his parents slowly being devoured by the inferno, then Mamiya finally understood. His music could not heal. It never did. It just made him forget.

_This country is rotten._

Mamiya will never forget that.

 

* * *

Mamiya Seiren. A former violin prodigy. His last performance was during the World Reformation Assembly where an explosion had taken place. He had retired afterwards, and his current whereabouts was not known.

As a SAKURA cadet, Mamiya Seiren was officially dead to the world. He was now a secret weapon to protect, who lived only to serve the country in the shadows.

Mamiya was given a new cause to live for, a new existence called messiah to look after. There was never a talk about the past. His past no longer mattered.

Wasn't that what Mamiya had always wanted?

_"Short Hair, I've heard. Your parents were killed by a terrorist. And yet you're here with us. What's your motive?"_

Mamiya had not forgotten. Nothing, not the Church, and not even his violin could make him forget.

" _I'll burn this country to the ground._ "

* * *

Mamiya Seiren. A former SAKURA cadet who betrayed the Church to join Quantum Cat, a terrorist organization.

And he was killed by his messiah, Ariga Ryou.

As Mamiya's body fell off the cliff, he caught glimpse of Ariga standing still and he thought of how it could have ended years ago. Ariga could have made him forget everything, but because of his music…

Mamiya could numbly feel the bed of sea swallowing his body, suffocating the life out of him.

It was so quiet here.

So peaceful.

This was a fitting ending for him.

 

Had he died there and then, he would not hear Ariga screaming, and his death would have been much quieter.

But he didn't, and now his frozen heart frantically attempted to beat, his nose inhaled water that ran liquid fire throughout his lifeless body, and his eyes snapped open only to see the vast depth of sea his body had fallen through.

Mamiya could no longer keep his eyes opened. They were getting too watery.

 

He closed them for one last time.

* * *

Mamiya Seiren. Killed in Action.


	15. Tag (Gen 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the SAKURA cadets act like high school students by being forced to participate in various activities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From 12 Dec to 18 Dec, I'll be writing Highschool AU themes! It won't be AU per se, neither it will be real high school setting. Just the characters having fun like school kids in their own messiah way XD  
> So...they might be slightly OOC, because these are happy messiah kids we're talking about, and being happy in itself is OOC for messiah characters XD

"What are we doing here again?!"

Eiri could no longer bear the silence. The four of them had been standing in the middle of this basketball court sized field for ages, with nothing and no one but a lone camera on a tripod staring back at them from a distance. They were all not wearing their uniform, only black shirt and trousers, which spelt fishy to Eiri.

"I was hoping you would never ask." Shuusuke sighed. In resignation, he produced a neatly folded piece of paper from his trouser pocket. He unfolded the letter, sighed, and read it out loud.

" _'Firstly, please take note that participation in this activity is compulsory. Those who do not participate will have their access to in-house food revoked for a month_.' " Shuusuke waited for their reaction. Souma and Eiri protested loudly, while Haku silently stared at him wide eyed.

"It's Ichijima, isn't it?" Eiri growled.

"That bastard…" Souma echoed.

Shuusuke decided he had given them enough time. " ' _All four of you have been chosen to participate in this activity_.' " Shuusuke could hear Souma cursing. He cleared his throat twice before continuing. " ' _The activity you shall be participating in today is called Tag_. _Tag is a game where the one playing the role of the devil will chase the others in an attempt to touch them. If the devil touches-_ "

"It's just a normal game of tag." Souma interrupted, his annoyance very clearly conveyed in his voice.

"What's a game of tag?" Haku asked, earning him stares from everyone. This was one of the times Shuusuke loathed Haku's childlike demeanor. Even Souma decided not to pursue his intent of speeding Shuusuke up any longer.

"I shall summarize it for you." Shuusuke did not want to read aloud the entire explanation twice. "Choose one person to be the devil. That person must touch someone else to stop being the devil."

"It's a game of tag…" Haku gasped in realization. Shuusuke let Eiri do the scolding. He really wanted to get this over with.

" ' _Choose one person to be the devil amongst you. That person will wear a special glove that has been coated with white paint. You will find the glove beside the camera.'_ "

Souma raised up his hand. "I'll be the devil. I played this a lot before, and I was always the demon." Because he always played that with the children in his care taking house, Souma deliberately left those out. With a fond smile on his face, he followed the instruction to find the glove. He also took the liberty to hit the record button on the camera.

"If there's nothing else important, let's start now!" Souma declared as he wore the glove. Only the palm side was coated white.

Shuusuke noticed Souma's impatience and decided to skim through the letter and only read out the main points. "Please record for half an hour, play within the boundary of the field, and…that's about it."

"There's something written on the back." Shuusuke was about to put the letter away when Eiri pointed that out. He flipped the letter. It was written in such fine print it might as well be written with white ink. As expected from the one with hawk's eyes, even Shuusuke who had the luxury to read the letter first had failed to notice that.

"It's probably just some kind of printing mistake or-"

Shuusuke interrupted for this was too important. " ' _For the game you will be playing, once the demon touches another person, that person will retain his status as the demon. Meaning, the number of demons increases. By the end of the game, if the number of demon is still one, the demon will be punished. However, if there is more than one demon, the last person to become a demon shall be punished_.' "

Everyone waited quietly for Shuusuke to finish, even Souma. " ' _The punishment is, on top of the revoking of in-house food access, permit to access areas outside the church shall also be revoked for a month. Have fun._ ' "

The moment Shuusuke finished reading the last line, all of them came to the same realization. They had to play this _seriously_.

Souma managed to give a light pat to Eiri on the shoulder. "What are you- wait, are we playing already?" Eiri demanded after he touched the area to find his hand sticky with fresh white paint.

"I've started the video recording minutes ago." Souma grinned as he began to scoot away from the center of the field to the sidelines..

"That means I'm gonna be the last- oh hell no!" Eiri lashed out with his tainted hand at Haku who was standing next to him, but Haku managed to dodge it. "If I get this guy to buy me food everyday, I'm going to be diabetic!" Eiri complained as he continued trying to land his hand on Haku who kept on dodging them.

Souma and Shuusuke simply stood at the side watching the two dancing.

"You won't hit me, because then you will have to buy me food." Shuusuke deducted to his messiah.

"It's because you're very picky!" Souma retaliated.

They continued to watch in silence.

Haku managed to pick up their conversation despite dodging Eiri's frantic attacks. He even managed to whisper to Eiri. "You should aim for Shuusuke instead so Souma will be punished. He's the one who started the game."

Eiri suddenly stopped. "Good idea!" And dashed full speed towards the unsuspecting Shuusuke. He was three steps away from reaching him when Souma understood and jumped in between them.

"I know what you're trying to do." Souma stated with a smirk. "I'll protect my messiah till the very end."

"We'll see about that!" Eiri lunged with one hand towards Shuusuke, but Souma swatted it away. Eiri did it again, and once again his attack was deflected. Souma was the best at hand-to-hand combat amongst them.

Shuusuke, realizing the fray he was dragged into, silently slid away from the fray to the opposite corner of the field.

Haku looked at Shuusuke, who was standing in his new corner with his usual composure. Then he looked at his messiah, who was now trying to outrun Souma to get to Shuusuke. Haku knew Eiri would not win against Souma in terms of speed. Neither would Haku.

But the two of them would.

Haku calmly walked towards Eiri and yanked one arm, causing Eiri to abruptly come to a stop. "Haku, what-?!" He did not have time to protest for Haku brought Eiri's palm to touch his chest, leaving a faint white handprint on his shirt. Souma was equally befuddled by Haku's actions.

"Now let's get Shuusuke!" Haku declared to his messiah.

"Oh crap." Souma got in time to block Eiri's path, but as a consequence, Haku managed to go past his defense. Shuusuke also realized what the game had turned into, and began running away from Haku.

"Souma, get away!" Souma was shocked to hear his messiah shouted. He looked behind his back, and saw Shuusuke narrowly dodging Haku's attacks. Haku was not the strongest in physical strength and neither was Shuusuke, but he was certain Shuusuke would outperform Haku. In order to do that, Souma needed to get away from where he was now. Him standing there limited the area Shuusuke could run around to only a quarter of the field, because the moment Shuusuke went out of the defense wall that was Souma, Eiri would get him.

Souma grinned. This was the most fun game of tag he had ever played. From everyone's expression, it was the most fun time they ever had as well.

The recording had long gone past the one hour mark.

* * *

"Eiri, you only bought strawberry flavor. I want vanilla one~"

Eiri felt like banging his head into the wall. After they painstakingly managed to get Shuusuke, that former prosecutor decided to exploit the loophole in the instructions. He argued that Ichijima only instructed them to play for half an hour, and that was the official time limit of the game. "Therefore, the one who shall receive the penalty is the last person that is turned to demon within that timeframe. And that person is…"

"Why did you deliberately tag yourself, stupid Haku." Eiri groaned, preparing himself to go to the convenience store for the third time in the day thanks to Haku giving him bits and pieces of his shopping list _after_ he had bought them.

"Eiri, this time get some marshmallow~"

Curse his needy messiah and curse Souma for volunteering to be the demon and curse Shuusuke for being a former prosecutor.

Next time, he would definitely grab the demon role before Souma could. Just he wait!


	16. Cleaning (Gen 1 + Kuroko)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the SAKURA cadets act like high school students by being forced to participate in various activities (2/7)

"Why are we going to a pool?" Souma asked.

"More importantly…" Shuusuke continued.

"WHY IS THE POOL EMPTY?!" Eiri finished with a loud protest.

Haku, who had not joined the group in voicing out their concerns, noticed the caretaker of the Church, Kuroko, skipping towards them with a lot of cleaning instruments. He dumped all of them in a heap at their feet.

Kuroko scowled with his hands on his hips. "Really now, Ichijima-san called me out for a bit, and suddenly the Church is a total mess!"

Kuroko pointed to each one of them. "You, you, you and you,

"are not coming back until you finish cleaning this pool!" was the ultimatum from Kuroko. He left them to sit in the pool guard area, chilling under the shade while the rest of the cadets stared at each other dumbfounded under the scorching sun.

"I wonder why do we have to do this…" Haku mused as he bent to grab any random cleaning item.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Eiri snapped. "It's not enough that you litter around the room, but you also litter everywher-"

"Those are not litters. Those are all precious memento. I'm trying to share it with everyone." Haku explained. Souma and Shuusuke shivered at the memory of them finding a pile of ants in their room. It turned out to be a pile of chocolate from Haku that was left untouched a little too long.

"THEY ARE NOT! And if you want to litter at least keep it in our room!" Eiri continued to bicker with his messiah. Meanwhile, Shuusuke turned to Souma and nodded.

"I will get the hose."

"Then I'll get the mop."

With that, Souma and Shuusuke walked away from the two in the opposite direction.

" **Kaidoh-kyun**." Eiri abruptly stopped his argument upon hearing the sweet, yet sinister way of calling him. "I actually don't mind seeing you and Mitsumi-kyun argue all day, but if I have to choose between that and having dry skin, I think I'll choose to feed you and Mitsumi-kyun to piranhas instead~"

There's no piranhas in a pool, Eiri wanted to retort, but he decided to obey albeit grumpily. He did not want to have machine guns as his sparring partner, even if the bullets were just pellets. "You better come down and work too, Haku." Eiri said, grabbing a mop before joining Souma to clean the floor. Haku wondered if there was more than one hose around.

"Why can't he just get Haku to clean." Eiri grumbled as he mopped the floor furiously. "It was his fault that the Church became a pile of trash."

"You're his messiah, so it's your responsibility too." Souma, who had his back facing Eiri, answered. "Pass me some water!" He told the person who was standing above the ground with a hose in hand.

"If I can stop it, I would!" Eiri turned to face Souma. "I can't even get him to clean our room no matter how many times I've told him!"

Souma did not move his attention from the floor. "And I can't seem to get this stain off- Oi Shuusuke, I said pass me some wa-!!"

Souma finally got his water, sprayed in his face.

Eiri automatically dodged the sprinkles of water coming at him. Immediately switching to combat mode, he turned to identify Souma's assailant- he should have known it.

"HAKU!"

Haku waved with one hand, and directed the next spray at Eiri's face.

"I thought Shuusuke was in charge of the hose..!" Souma took off his drenched shirt and cast it aside, leaving his torso exposed. In the background, a whistling could be heard. "Where on earth did Shuusuke go to?"

"I'm here."

What came after Shuusuke's answer was a blast of cold water aimed at Souma's back.

"The weather was hotter than average. Having your body drenched in water will prevent you from having a heat stroke." Shuusuke changed the trajectory to the other person in the pool. "That includes you, Eiri."

"That includes YOU GUYS!!" Eiri shouted as he ducked down from Shuusuke's attack in time.

"We are not engaged in heavy physical activity, so that will be unnecessary, and a waste of water." Shuusuke explained _while_ shooting water at Eiri for a second time. Eiri managed to dodge Shuusuke's attack, only to be shot by Haku mid-air. Shuusuke's attack went to hit Souma instead.

"Ohhh that's it!" Souma wiped the water off his face and stormed out of the pool. Eiri thought he was going to try and force one of them to pass him the hose. Instead, Souma went to pick a bucket and filled it with water at the nearby tap. With a bucketful of water, Souma smirked.

"Two can play at this game!"

Eiri slapped his forehead. If he had known that the cost of not cleaning after Haku's trash was to clean an entire pool on his own, he would gladly throw and burn all the trash he could find, he sulked in regret as he continued to mop the floor while trying to ignore whatever cat fight that was going on with those other three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am bad at doing AU. Had a bit of writer's block while writing this. It's just hard to imagine the characters in a normal happy situation X.X  
> I hope I can finish the entire week. If not...let's just pretend it's never a whole week project in the first place :p


	17. KFM (Gen 2 + Kuroko)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the SAKURA cadets act like high school students by being forced to participate in various activities (3/7)

On one fine night, four SAKURA cadets found themselves gathered in Shirazaki and Yuuri's room in their pajamas, or black shirt and pants. All of them had heard stories about this from their seniors before. At least once during their term of office, they would be forced to do 'unbelievable things' by a certain someone.

Kuroko entered the room and slammed the door shut.

"Aww, I'm so happy all of you guys can make it~" Kuroko complimented with excessive hand gestures. Everyone in the room, including him, were well aware the kind of repercussion they would get if they did otherwise.

"Now now, no need to wait for me. Sit sit!" He gestured at the floor while he took a seat right at the door, effectively blocking the only way out. Left without a choice, the cadets complied. From Kuroko's left in clockwise direction was Shirazaki, Yuuri, Mamiya and then Ariga.

Everyone had their eyes on Kuroko as they awaited the inevitable, their mouths shut. The temptation for Kuroko to make a remark on their attitudes was really huge. If it had been the previous batch, they would have made a ruckus even before Kuroko get into the room. These puppies are too tame. Hopefully he could break that tonight.

"Okay!" Kuroko clapped his hands to refresh everyone's attention. "You all probably want to leave this room the moment I leave my eyes from you, but no. So while we're here, let's play a simple game~"

"The name of the game iiiiiiiiisss…" Kuroko deliberately dragged the last syllable for a dramatic pause.

"Kill fuck or marry~"

And everyone in the room lost their minds- or as much as the four stoic cadets could display. Their reaction was as silent as the room without them. So to exaggerate, Shirazaki's jaw dropped to the floor, Yuuri's eyebrows went up to the roof, Mamiya suffered a heart attack and Ariga's temperature dropped to sub zero.

"Choose one person for each category between the four of you." Kuroko continued. "I'm not included. I'm way out of your league~"

Kuroko imagined seeing huge sweat drop bullets on their foreheads at his exclamation because he did not want to feel like talking to a bunch of ghosts. Even ghosts were more fun.

"So Shirazaki-kyun, **START**."

Shirazaki was completely caught off guard by the sudden pass. "I, uh…" He stuttered, trying to stall for time. "I guess-"

"Oh, and please forget the stupid rules like how you can only be friends or lovers with your messiah blah blah." Kuroko interjected. He swore he could hear the cadets swearing, in their minds, totally silent without saying a single word- oh well if their answers were not satisfactory, he just wouldn't let them out.

"Shirazaki-kyun, please continue~"

Shirazaki grimaced. "Uh…" His eyes darted from one person to another, weighing his options very carefully. He settled at the person sitting next to him. "I've been close friends with Kaito since young, so I guess I'll marry Kaito?"

Yuuri smiled and nodded in affirmation. Kuroko rolled his eyes. That one was obvious. This was where things got fun.

Shirazaki could also see the land mines in answering the next part. He gave a good look at Ariga's poker face, and at Mamiya who averted his eyes. He took a deep breath, bracing himself to answer. "So, if I define 'fuck' as the person that is closest to my type, then I'll choose Mamiya."

Kuroko whistled, enjoying the look of surprise on Mamiya's face.

"And to be honest, I don't think I can kill Ariga anyway." Shirazaki quickly added, which Kuroko felt unnecessary since that heartless guy did not even bat an eye at any of the answers.

Kuroko needed a better answer. "NEXT!"

Yuuri had his eyes fixed on the floor. He always did that whenever he spoke his mind while simultaneously engaged in deep thinking. "Back when I was a shut in, Mamoru has been taking very good care of me. I think Mamoru would make a great wife."

"W-wife?!" Shirazaki shuttered.

"But I'm not really comfortable with fucking a stranger, so I think I'll fuck Mamoru instead." Yuuri said without hesitation, causing blush to creep onto Shirazaki's face. Kuroko loved where this was going.

"I don't mind marrying Mamiya. We've been paired as messiahs before." Yuuri told Mamiya, who had not been able to lift his gaze up ever since Mamoru gave his answer. "And that leaves the last to Ariga. No offense."

Ariga shrugged. "This is merely a waste of time."

"Dissing this game won't get you out of it, Ariga-kyun." Kuroko warned. "That was a great answer, Yuuri-kyun. Mamiya-kyun, please go next."

Mamiya still found the floor to be very interesting.

"Mamiya-kyun?"

Mamiya's face was starting to grow very red in shade.

"Don't think of it too literally, Mamiya." Shirazaki encouraged. "Think of it as…picking the person closest to you and the person you find to be most attractive."

"Yuuri." Mamiya said with a volume barely above a whisper.

"Come again?" Kuroko asked.

"The person closest to me." Mamiya explained, his voice still very weak and his head still lowered. "And the most attractive person…I'm sorry, Shirazaki."

That was all Mamiya could say. Shirazaki immediately dismissed the apology. Ariga didn't look like he understood the implication behind Mamiya's choice. Kuroko bet Ariga would still not get it even if Mamiya confessed right then and there. He did not feel like bullying the poor kid, so he moved on to Ariga. "Ariga, finish it properly."

"My permanent messiah is Mamiya, therefore I can be friends and lovers with him. I will kill everyone who poses a threat to the country."

Kuroko jumped up and towered over Ariga, staring down at him. "Listen, Ariga-kyun. Either you answer the questions properly, or I'll personally make the lives of all four of you as miserable as I can make it be. You don't want to test me."

After saying that, Kuroko sat back down again, anticipating the drama to unfold before him.

"You know, it's not worth to have his wrath on us just for this." Yuuri began.

"Just do it like how Mamiya did." Shirazaki added. "The person you are closest to, and the person you think is the most attractive."

Mamiya lowered his head further.

Ariga sighed. "I have been paired with Shirazaki and Mamiya as messiah. That means the last title will go to Yuuri."

Kuroko held his retort back. At least Ariga was getting somewhere.

"Between Mamiya and I, who do you think is more attractive?" Shirazaki asked half-jokingly, hoping that he did not crack the eggshell that was Mamiya.

Ariga sat in silence. It was difficult to tell whether Ariga was being quiet because he was unwilling to answer, or because he was contemplating it.

"I am physically closer to Mamiya right now."

Kuroko wished he could aim a flamethrower to this guy's heart. Little did Kuroko knew that Ariga had more reasons to not answer truthfully than just his social ineptness.

Great, Kuroko cursed. Thanks to Ariga the wet blanket, the game ended very, very awkwardly. Shirazaki and Yuuri were at loss of words to say, Mamiya looked like someone had just strung a wrong note, and Ariga had no clue on what he just did.

"What about you, Kuroko?" Shirazaki forced himself to break through the silence.

"Whom I'll fuck, kill and marry?" Kuroko repeated. "I'll marry Kamikita-san of course! I'll fuck that four eyed bastard Ichijima,"

"and I would kill Ariga-kyun for not answering the question properly." Kuroko glared daggers to the person on his right. "Who do _you_ think is the most attractive, Shirazaki or Mamiya, choose one. Answer this properly, and you guys will get to sleep tonight."

Kuroko made sure there was no loophole for Ariga to exploit this time. Shirazaki and Yuuri silently waited for Ariga to answer. Mamiya refused to look up from the floor.

He did not say his answer out loud. But Shirazaki, Yuuri and Kuroko could see it. It was a split second. Right after Kuroko gave the question, Ariga turned his head and his gaze to the direction of his answer, before abruptly changing course midway and opting to look straight at the wall behind Shirazaki instead.

Unfortunately, Mamiya would never know the answer.

"I swear, if you guys don't learn how to communicate asap, you'll die." Kuroko warned as he rose up from the floor. "You guys barely pass, so I won't be making your lives miserable. Good nite~"

With a goodbye wave, Kuroko walked out of the room, leaving the door ajar.

That was the only sleepover the four of them could have.


	18. KFM cont. (Ariga/Kagami)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ariga tried to pass on the activity that made him act like a high school student (4/7)

"Kill, fuck or marry."

"Hm?" Kagami paused his counting of lollipops that were scattered on his bed to look at the person across to him. "Did you say anything Ariga-san?"

Ariga was sitting at the corner of his bed, looking at Kagami as if he was about to discuss an important mission. "Choose one person for each category." He asked.

Kagami took one lollipop from his bed, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. "That's uncharacteristic of you Ariga-san."

"Just answer the question."

"Why should I?"

Ariga visibly frowned. The end of the conversation, Kagami thought as he returned to sorting his lollipops.

"It was a game Kuroko forced us to play before." Instead, Ariga launched into expository. "Me, Shirazaki, Yuuri and…Mamiya."

"So?" Kagami asked while moving one lollipop to another place, sparing Ariga no glance.

Ariga paused for a moment before answering. "You're a part of the group now."

Kuroko snorted. "And this game is some sort of initiation or something? I thought Ariga-san'd be the first to run away."

Another awkward pause. "I didn't."

"So?"

Sighing in exasperation, "Never mind." Ariga said, finally leaving Kagami to do his lollipop sorting undisturbed.

When Kagami heard the sound of the door click shut, he stopped everything that he was doing. He played with the lollipop in his mouth while his mind ran through the question Ariga had thrown him.

"If you have a lot of flavors to choose from," Kagami looked at the different colored lollipops on his bed, now sorted accordingly. "You either ignore they exist, or you try them one by one."

"I guess it starts with you, Ariga-san."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kagami may advocate 'sampling' people, but I don't XD  
> Also a short chapter, because I'm really running out of juice.


	19. Celebration (General)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How SAKURA cadets see celebrations (5/7)

In school, there are always various occasions to celebrate. Some internal, like a school festival. Others, like a classmate's birthday, are more personal.

The occasion to celebrate was always there, but no one in the Church saw the need to.

Celebrating the day the Church was founded only served as a reminder of the current state of the country that warranted the Church's existence in the first place. The extent of the atrocities humans had brought onto themselves definitely did not need to be celebrated. A sense of pride and belonging did grow in the cadets' heart, but most of the time the cadets were just thankful they had the opportunity to feel those emotions.

A birthday party was definitely out of the question. A lot of the cadets in the Church were not even aware of their date of birth. Those who were aware tend to disappear from the Church for that entire day. Some spent their day at a particularly memorable place, others opted to distract themselves with missions. It was such a painful irony for a person deemed dead to the world to celebrate the day they began to live; an irony no one dared to stomach.

Not even a successful mission warranted a celebration. To the cadets, a successful mission simply meant that they got to live to do another mission, and another one, and another one. A soldier might not feel proud of their actions, but because the country did, they learnt to accept that feeling. For SAKURA cadets whose existence was nothing but a living ghost, all they could make out of a successful mission was a selfish act of prolonging their own lives, and perhaps the lives of their comrades. One does not celebrate the act of drinking a medicine.

Then, there's the graduation. A graduation ceremony is always such a huge thing in school. A celebration will always be held, a grand send-off such that the students will remember that day as one where they managed to complete a certain milestones in their lives. It was also a sad day where you part with friends and teachers that you have grown to know well. 'Let's meet again!', that phrase is often uttered in a school graduation.

However in the Church, a farewell is forever.

How ironic that graduation was the only occasion they celebrated, if it can even be called one. It was more of a send-off, a bittersweet aftertaste. They never celebrated the day they were born, they never celebrated the day the Church was born, yet they celebrated the day that reminded them of _why_ they were born and _why_ the Church was born.

Even so, the cadets looked forward to it.

With a makeshift feast consisting of Haku's assortments of sweets and packet drinks, Haku and Eiri threw a graduation party to their graduating comrades Souma and Shuusuke.

Mamiya presented a beautiful send off to Haku and Eiri with his violin performance, while Shirazaki and Yuuri along with an unwilling Ariga scraped together foods like sandwich and precooked rice from the convenience store as their buffet.

There was now another occasion to celebrate. Commemorate might be the appropriate word, but Ariga believed Mamiya would have preferred 'celebrate'. Ariga thought so too, as he stood at the cliff staring at the sea that swallowed Mamiya's body. Kagami stood beside him, admiring the flower petals and lollipops that adorned Mamiya's death bed.

Celebration. To those in the Church, it does not mean party. It did not need to have abundant feast, endless stream of laughter, or anything of that sort.

It means no regrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deviating further and further away from the 'Highschool AU' theme... XD


	20. Route (Misu, Amane, Takano)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking the safe route vs the risky route (6/7)

There was a time, when Amane Yasuchika was a name commonly associated with number one. The students who received the highest grades, the top scoring student in the school. Even if his father never acknowledged it, Amane was known as the smartest student in the school, one that had a 'bright future' ahead of him. So when the news broke that Amane would not be continuing high school, many lamented his 'wasted potential'.

Misu Kimitoshi did not even complete his primary education. After the incident concerning his mother, Misu spent the rest of his life on the street, fighting tooth and nail just to see another sunrise. He grew up shaped by the harshest of concrete, the freezing bullets of the rain, and the masses that ignored his existence, or wished to eliminate it. He had no recollection of his school days whatsoever, and never once did he find himself trying to remember them.

Takano Yuuta was what you would call an honor student. He studied every day, he always submitted his homework on time, and he finished all his stages of education. He also managed to get the job he had always wanted.

Yet, here they were, gathered together in Takano's apartment. Looking at Amane huddling in the corner of the room and Misu trying to comfort him, Takano wondered whether he was really in a better place than them. He had dutifully followed the path that he was told to follow, and yet…it was nothing compared to Misu and Amane. They who kept on chasing after their dreams, even if they had to stray from the normal path. People might see Misu and Amane's current state as pathetic, but to Takano, he was the pathetic one.

From the ashes rises phoenix. For ashes to be formed, something had to be burnt. Misu and Amane had been faced with hardships since young, hardships that turned them into terrorists, as well as people capable of bringing the leader of a terrorist group down.

"I'll go and prepare dinner for tonight."

From an unburnt log, Takano supposed a table could be made, one where he could put the food he cooked for those he supported to enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A super short piece >.<  
> And finally, tomorrow's the last for this 'school' theme XD


	21. School Life of Mutual Killing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An excerpt of what might happen if the cadets are thrown in mutual killing situation (7/7)

The first person to break the tension was Mitsumi Haku. Kaidoh Eiri grew alert, but he stopped himself from doing anything reckless. He joined everyone else in following Mitsumi's every move closely. Mitsumi was smiling as he took his gun from his holster, a smile that looked like it was carved onto his face.

"It's enough."

Kaidoh instinctively reached for his gun. He aimed it at his messiah at the same time Mitsumi pointed his gun to his temple.

"HAKU!"

Kaidoh's scream did not reach the intended heart, but it did to everyone else in the room. Guns were drawn and stances were taken. Everyone now realized just how serious the situation they were in.

"I'm not going to let my messiah died again." Mitsumi said with that self deprecating smile, refusing to look at Kaidoh. His smile grew slightly earnest at the sight of everyone else in their fighting stance, even if some of their guns were aimed at him. "I won't kill anyone's messiah, and I won't let anyone else kill Eiri's messiah."

"Mitsumi-san." A person stepped forward, breaking the circle like formation they had. Ariga Ryou, one of the owner of the guns that were pointed at Mitsumi. Ariga did not say anything else, his gun perfectly aimed at Mitsumi's head. Two full seconds passed in complete silence. A bolt of realization struck everyone on the third with a loud _BANG!_

"ARIGA!"

"HAKU!!!"

Frantic shouts of names overlapped one another, and another bullet was discharged. The sound of guns clattering against the cold concrete rang loudly in the enclosed room. Ariga flinched, holding his wounded hand to his chest. Mamiya had rushed to Ariga's side, but immediately stopped before any physical contact could be made. Which should he be doing, helping his wounded messiah, or taking action against Kaidoh? Mamiya could not move until he had made up his mind.

Kaidoh did not regret shooting Ariga for it was merely a warning, nothing fatal. But when he saw his messiah, frozen in the same pose as before without a gun in his grip, Kaidoh grimaced at the horror of his action. His eyes quickly scanned the floor. There were two guns. Ariga had not intended to shoot Mitsumi, he-!

He did not have time to explain. Before him was Yuuri Kaito, holding a gun to his head.

"Kaidoh-san, I think it's very admirable that you will do anything to save your messiah." The look on Yuuri's face brought an unsettling feeling within Kaidoh. He had the exact same look back when he was working under the mafia.

"I, too, will do anything to save my messiah."

"KAITO, STOP!"

Once the next gunshot was heard, everyone found themselves wishing for the bleak stalemate from earlier to return, because they knew, there was no going back with the seven of them left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allow me to end this 'highschool AU' theme with a BANG XD  
> I might continue this mutual killing idea on another time, maybe.
> 
> For the next week, I think I'll be writing in the spirit of Christmas!  
> Thank you for still sticking with this fic until this far! :D


	22. Two wrongs do (not) make a right

"Mitsumi-san."

Silence.

"I just want to inform you that Kaidoh-san is okay now."

No response.

"…It might not be in my place to say this, but I think you should go and visit Kaidoh-san."

Mitsumi finally turned around to address the person. He did not forget to smile. "I will. Thank you, Mamiya."

Mamiya bowed and left Mitsumi back to his previous state, seated by himself in the Church's hall with his eyes lost on the gun placed before him; Mitsumi's own gun.

 _Kill someone in the Church_. Mitsumi and Kaidoh had accomplished that mission, making them eligible to graduate. What Mamiya had thought to be a celebratory occasion turned out to be as repugnant as the sound of nails clawing a blackboard. If it had not been Serizawa who was killed, if it had been _him_ , could things be…?

Two knocks on the door. "Enter." The person on the other side of the door answered. Mamiya was forced to return to the present.

"How is Haku?" Kaidoh asked from his sickbed. How healthy he looked, Mamiya observed in awe, for someone who had barely missed a vital shot. If Kaidoh Eiri truly could not be killed, then they should have 'killed' Kaidoh Eiri for their mission- no, he had no right to justify his involvement in this case.

"Mitsumi-san is...quiet." Mamiya struggled to find the correct words.

"I knew it."

Mamiya could hear the heavy sigh concealed in Kaidoh's reply. His senior was disappointed in Mamiya's inaptitude. "I'll go and talk to him again-" Mamiya bowed and quickly went out to the exit.

"There's no need to, Mamiya." Kaidoh stopped Mamiya with kind, yet firm instructions. "Haku needs some time. I can understand that."

But Mamiya could not. When Kaidoh was supposedly dead, Mitsumi fell into a living dead state. Now, after Serizawa was killed, Mitsumi also fell into that pit of darkness. He had heard that Serizawa was Mitsumi's older brother, Mitsumi Suo. If Mitsumi really loved his older brother so much, then why did he choose Kaidoh Eiri?

Their mission was to kill _someone_. Why did they deliberately limit their options to Kaidoh Eiri, Mitsumi Haku, or Serizawa, when they could have chosen _him_?

"Mamiya?" Kaidoh's voice was surprisingly gentle. Mamiya could not tell whether it was truly him or his wound talking.

Mamiya turned around to face his senior to find Kaidoh looking at him concerned, as if Mamiya was the one bedridden.

"Serizawa has killed two SAKURA cadets in the past. Serizawa threatened to release a deadly virus to destroy the country. Serizawa, as you know it, is also Haku's older brother. Do you think he deserved to be killed?"

It was Kaidoh who was bedridden after all.

"I-…" _don't_. "don't know…"

"What am I thinking, asking you this kind of question." Kaidoh laughed sheepishly. "You'll find the answer when the time comes."

"Actually, Kaidoh-san." Mamiya already had his answer some time ago.

His parents had been killed by a terrorist group. His parents had been a part of another terrorist group. Did his parents deserve to be killed?

Did _he_ deserve to be killed?

"I think he deserves it."

Kaidoh smiled, like a parent proud of his child. Mamiya quickly averted his eyes. "Don't worry, I think so too." Kaidoh assured, entirely missing the point. "But you should wait until your graduation mission before you answer the question."

In hindsight, Mamiya should have seen the answer right before his face. Standing before him was a couple, graduating messiahs, who had reached their happy end. This happened because Mitsumi cut the last string to his former life, his last family member. Mamiya might have seen it, actually, this path to happiness.

Unfortunately, Mamiya was unlike Mitsumi. Mamiya was Serizawa.

Mamiya had been looking at the wrong path until the very end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed my mind. Not doing Christmas theme XD


	23. No Free Lunch (Ichijima/Kamikita)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamikita's guide to socializing. It involves gun and sandwich.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still running with the headcanon that Ichijima was formerly a SAKURA cadet, rather than the founder :D

"Here you go." Ichijima passed his messiah, Kamikita, a sandwich he had just bought from a convenience store.

Kamikita knew there was something wrong when Ichijima, out of nowhere, suggested to 'go out for a lunch'. He regretted not rejecting the offer, now that he found himself ploughing through freezing snow with just a sandwich in hand. He glared at his messiah who looked completely unperturbed walking ahead of him. If this was Ichijima's sick idea to remind Kamikita of what he did two months ago…Kamikita wondered if he should have bought more sandwiches back then.

No matter. Ichijima had completed his whim, and they were heading back to the Church, or so Kamikita thought. Ichijima seemed to be deliberately taking the longest route possible to get to the Church,without making an obvious detour that would allow Kamikita to protest. He had heard words like 'manipulative' and 'bastard' to describe Ichijima, but never 'troll'. Kamikita pulled his winter coat tighter around this body.

Ichijima suddenly stopped, so Kamikita followed suit. Something at the side of the road had attracted Ichijima's attention. Kamikita took a look at the object of interest…and instinctively reached for a gun on his belt.

Left abandoned at the corner of the street was a little girl, obviously malnourished and heavily battered. Clothed only in a single thin dress, it was a marvel she was still alive under this unforgiving weather, but not for long. Her lack of trembling suggested that her system had ceased to register the coldness of the temperature, and she did not acknowledge Ichijima and Kamikita's attention. She sat there, legs huddled close to her chest, staring down at something only she could see.

Kamikita had his hand on his gun, but he did not withdraw it yet. He observed closely how Ichijima approached the girl, how the girl did not react to that at all. Ichijima placed his share of sandwich at the girl's side. "It's not your fault you're a girl." To Kamikita's surprise, Ichijima squatted down to the girl's height and patted the girl's head with his gloved hand. Still, the girl showed no sign of awareness. Kamikita was starting to wonder whether the girl was conscious.

Ichijima stood back up and looked at Kamikita. He stepped closer until their faces barely touching. Kamikita went fully alert. He had told Ichijima of his history, was Ichijima trying to tackle him down, or-?

"What happens here is only between us, I promise." Ichijima whispered to Kamikita's ear.

Kamikita flinched. The way Ichijima was overly sweet with his words sent shivers down his body more than the cold winter did.

But Ichijima knew what Kamikita planned on doing. He deliberately gave him the green light.

Taking a deep breath, Kamikita left Ichijima and went to approach the little girl. This was going to be cold, Kamikita told himself as he unbuttoned his coat and draped it around the girl's lithe body. Then he squatted down to take the sandwich Ichijima had left on the floor, and put it on the girl's lap together with his. Afterwards, Kamikita waited. Ten minutes, he told himself.

It took half of the time limit to see a flicker of light in the girl's eyes. Kamikita closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He pulled the gun out of the holster, and held it at the girl's forehead.

If the by-passer saw him, none did anything. Ichijima included.

Kamikita could feel his gun shaking in his grip. The girl was trembling.

"If you run now, you can keep the food and the coat. I give you three seconds." Kamikita had lost track of the amount of times he had said that.

_One._

Three seconds, enough time to dodge his bullet _and_ shoot him.

_Two._

Kamikita flicked the safety switch off.

_Three…_

She dashed. Clutching onto two packets of sandwiches and a coat larger than her, she ran as far away as she could. People on the street looked at her funny, but no one said anything. She didn't care where to, she continued to run, without once looking back.

Kamikita let out the breath he did not realize he had been holding. He placed his gun back to where it belonged and stood up. It hit him like a thunderbolt, how freezing cold it was now that he was left without a coat. He wrapped his hands around his body in a vain attempt to preserve heat.

"And here I thought I could have a new messiah. How naive of me."

Kamikita had completely overlooked Ichijima's presence until he spoke. When he did, he wished he had continued to overlook it. "You're testing me?!"

"I have given you a warning. It is not my responsibility if you choose to abuse your authority and shoot the girl."

A very misleading warning alright. "As if you're any better." Kamikita frowned, rubbing his hands on his arms. Even venting at Ichijima did not make him feel any warmer.

Ichijima smirked. "So you do have a brain inside that skull of yours. How fascinating." Without warning, he continued walking.

Kamikita immediately chased after him. "Sometimes I miss the days when you ignore me constantly." He found himself thinking out loud under the influence of the weather.

"Try asking around for advice, though I am certain they will tell you to shoot me again."

Kamikita grimaced at the memory. The first time he got this person to acknowledge him, Kamikita told him everything. Two months later, Kamikita knew jack about Ichijima and his past. "…You're never gonna let that go, won't you?"

Ichijima took much joy in teasing his poor freezing messiah as they walked, bringing up his number one fondest memory which was when Kamikita buried Ichijima's bed in porn magazines, much to Kamikita's chagrin. Kamikita silently wondered why did he never consider asking to have a new messiah reassigned to him.

Kamikita did not notice that they had not been heading to the Church until it was too late. When he did, he found himself seated in a cozy, warm cafe with a hot cocoa in his hand, and Ichijima looking bored across him.

He brought the hot drink to his lips, relishing the feeling of his frosted nerves melting under the influence of the sweet warm concoction.

This was the reason why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After writing so many pairs, I think my favorite one is this 'IchiKami' pair (maybe with kuroko) XD  
> I barely understand the canon Ichijima/Kamikita though, so my apologies if a lot of things are OOC.
> 
> To me,   
> Ichijima= manipulative jerk  
> Kamikita=socially...unique  
> That's about it XD


	24. With a kiss (Ariga/Mamiya)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Thus with a kiss, I die.'

'SAKURA can not become friends or lovers'

Mamiya had never overly concerned himself with the rules of the Church. They were mere formalities. When push come to shove, those rules will definitely be forgotten, just like how the country forgot to protect its people, _his parents_. Mamiya would be breaking them soon, which might explain his sudden obsession with them.

He had heard it before, in one of the books that used to keep him company, a thing called love at first sight. Romeo fell in love instantly the moment his eyes met Juliet. Then they kissed, an act that is described to be so divine it cleanses one's conscience. Mamiya had never experienced such encounter before. Granted, his social circle was painfully limited to the audience of his performance and terrorists after his life.

Mamiya wanted to experience this, just once, just to prove it to himself that such thing doesn't exist, to convince himself that there was nothing worth salvaging in this world,  _nothing to regret._ But his time was ticking down.

Enter Ariga into their shared room. Ariga Ryou, Mamiya's messiah, the only _exception_ to the rule, the only person the Church allowed Mamiya to be friends, or lovers with.

Ariga barely acknowledged Mamiya's presence and went straight to bed, something that Mamiya had gotten accustomed to. Mamiya stared at Ariga's back as if searching for the answer written there. Could it be? Mamiya had not felt any attraction towards Ariga back when he was temporarily partnered with Yuuri. There was no love at first sight there, and for sure, nothing from Ariga himself. Mamiya's presence was at best a partner in mission, and at worst, a burden.

But there was no time left. No other option.

Mamiya slowly approached Ariga who was lying down on the bed facing the wall. He tapped his shoulder once, with a touch as light as a feather. Ariga, who was never fully asleep, snapped awake and tilted his head slightly towards Mamiya.

"I'm sorry, Ariga."

Mamiya had his eyes closed, not daring to look at his partner as he let their lips connected. A kiss as light as his touch, as distant as their relationship.

It was _more_ than enough.

Mamiya's eyes snapped open. Before Ariga could say anything, Mamiya quickly flew out of the room. This was a mistake. Mamiya ghosted over his lips, his breathing heavy. But that feeling of something tender against his lips, something warm and accepting- Ariga had _accepted_ the kiss--!

He should not have done that.

_Thus with a kiss, I die._

Mamiya could no longer leave without regret.


	25. A chance encounter (Haku/Eiri)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if it was Haku who discovered Eiri

Upon receiving the _gift_ that was dissected parts of his second messiah stuffed in an oboe case, Haku instantly stormed out of the Church. Everyone understood that Haku would need some alone time, far far away from anything that could cause the tainted memories to resurface, so no one said anything. That was not the case, but Haku let them assume anyway.

As Haku walked down the main street, his eyes were acutely searching left and right. If he was super lucky, he would find his brother and they would go back home together- no, Haku might be a child at heart, but he definitely did not have a brain of one. He was looking for a solution. This was the second time in a row Haku had his messiah killed and sent back to him, despite Haku keeping track on his every single move. The loss of his second messiah was nothing compared to Haku realizing that _there was nothing he could do_ to stop the killing. That left him with one choice, that was to prevent someone from being a target in the first place.

There were a lot of shops in the street, and Haku briefly considered going into each one, asking for a job, and then leaving the Church permanently. Again, he did not have a brain of a child. Haku knew well he could not escape from the Church. Sooner or later he would be back, a new messiah would be assigned to him, and this would repeat all over again. This 'alone time' was his only way of avoiding it, a vain act of merely putting off the inevitable by a few hours.

The choices were simple, Ichijima had clearly told him. Anyone that became Haku's messiah would have their lives targeted, and would eventually meet a premature death. As long as 'Haku's messiah' existed--

A sound of trash can crashing against the concrete snapped Haku's attention back to the road. He had not accidentally kicked any trash can. Haku observed his surroundings to find the source.

There it was, inside an alley invisible to most, a person lying prone amidst stinky garbages. It looked as if the trash can had accidentally vomited the man along. As if it was not visually appalling enough, some kind of dark liquid began creeping along the pavement. Haku did not need eagle's eyes to see that the liquid was crimson, even the stench of rotten meat could not conceal the metallic smell of blood. Haku rushed into the alley and knelt to check for the man's pulse, getting his shoes and jeans stained with the overbearing liquid.

"I-I'm alive, h-huh…"

Haku blinked. There was no relief in the man's statement.

"I'll get you to a doctor or something." Haku assured, turning the man around to carry him in his arms. The man had no power to physically resist Haku's actions. Unfortunately, he had enough to express them verbally.

"L-leave me…" The man on Haku's cradle ordered. "I'm…fine……'lways do."

Any sane person with eyes could see the man had three bullet holes on his torso. Haku wanted to roll his eyes, but he didn't. This man was not assuring him with empty words, or putting a facade of strength. This man was stating a fact, that he was still alive despite having injuries that would have killed any normal person.

"Can you not die?"

It was such an inappropriate question from Haku given the circumstances. If this man had good humor, he would shrug it off as a sarcasm. If not, Haku would be spat with profanities. Or better, the man would not even have the energy to reply.

He did not expect the man to smile, and said, "Seems…like it."

That moment sealed it. Haku lifted the man up from the ground despite the groans of protest. He carried him out of the alley, bridal style, ignoring the curious looks from the onlookers. It was not that difficult considering how everyone kindly steered away from the smelly pair, thus opening a straight path for Haku to walk through.

Now that Haku was looking at him up close and personal, this 'man' was probably barely twenty years old. Yet from the look in his eyes, Haku could see how unperturbed the man was to his current near-death state, how accustomed he was to it.

It was like looking at his own eyes.

"Promise that you won't die on me." Haku said.

"I…I've told you..already…." The man used all the energy he had left to grin. "I won't die."

Haku smiled.

_Either you stop being a SAKURA,_

_or your messiah will always die._

There was a third option after all, one that was gradually staining his entire clothes in blood.

'Haku's messiah' that can't be killed.


	26. Intersection(Haku/Eiri)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No matter the distance, one day, for sure, their paths would intersect once more.

If Haku had to find a word to describe it,it would be 'heart attack'. That's two words, but no matter.

On the day Haku graduated from the Church, he had resigned to the fact that he would not be seeing Eiri anytime soon. It was fine, he told himself, because this time he knew for sure his messiah would be alive and well. Therefore, Haku would also strive to be alive and well until they met again.

But somewhere inside, Haku had thoroughly convinced himself that there was no _again_.

So when he saw a shade of brown walking past him, carrying with him a perfume scent that made up half of their bedroom, Haku's heart skipped a beat. And it would have stopped there too; He had once planned on doing that for his messiah.

But he had learnt not to, for this moment could only exist because his heart was still beating.

* * *

 

If Eiri had to describe it in a word, it would be 'proud', like a father to his son.

Learning to spend his days without Haku's constant annoying presence was harder than Eiri had expected. His current living space felt too empty, too silent, too clean. But they had to walk on this path if they hoped to ever see each other again.

Is Haku eating properly? Had he even cleaned his room once? Are his neighbors still sane? Eiri would entertain himself with such thoughts from time to time.

_How is he dealing with his brother's death?_

So when he caught Haku, looking proper and prim walking past him, Eiri bursted into joy. It was like seeing what used to be a broken bird soaring free into the sky. He had done it. They had done it!

They had survived long enough, to meet once again.

* * *

 

Amidst the very packed intersection, two men caught sight of one another. There were close enough to see, but too far to touch.

There was no stopping. It was a crossing road, and the green light would flick to red in less than five seconds.

There was no stopping, because even if they meet now, they still had to move on with their lives. This was a mere fleeting encounter, like a dream come true. Just like a dream, it vanished just as quickly. But that was more than enough, for now they knew for sure.

No matter where life took them, how much they strayed, one day, for sure, their paths would intersect once more.


	27. Transport (Misu/Amane)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have spent so much time together, yet not even one touch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Shinku no Shou.

An abandoned warehouse. This was the place Amane's code had led Misu to. Between the dilapidated building and the grey clouds dominating the sky, Misu couldn't help but to feel ominous. What was Amane doing inside, Misu could not even begin to guess.

Whatever he would have guessed was more preferable, he would soon discover. Right from the moment he stepped in, the tangled scent of guns and blood hit crashed onto him like a wave. Was he too late? Misu refused to entertain his thoughts further. His eyes desperately scanned the dimly lit warehouse for any signs of life.

He saw something black, unruly. It was moving ever so slightly left and right and back and forth, as if it was trembling. Misu broke into a sprint. "Amane..!" Thank heavens he made it in time, Misu had thought.

"Misu-san…"

Then he heard Amane's strained call and Misu's short-lived illusion shattered in an instant. Amane's unfocused gaze spoke volumes. Something, that time could not rewind, had unfolded here. He followed Amane's gaze and saw a dead body. A dead _Tsutsumi Takaya_.

He needed to bring Amane out of here, fast.

"Can you walk?" Misu tried asking, but Amane didn't hear. Amane was too lost in depths of his own abyss, it was a miracle he could still recognize Misu. If Amane could not get himself out, Misu had to do it. He knelt close and reached out with one hand to pull Amane's shoulder towards him. His finger was only barely touching the fabric when Misu suddenly froze.

Memories of his days with Amane flashed through his mind, both the harsher days when Amane fought alongside him, and the lighter days when Misu took Amane out to eat. Their days as terrorists, as well as their days as a member of Sector 4. And only now Misu realized one particular thing that had been consistent throughout.

He had never physically touched Amane before. Not even once.

Misu had seen how Amane reacted to physical contact, how the poor innocent guy nearly had a bullet through his head as a result. Since Misu was not a touchy-feely guy to begin with, he was more than comfortable with letting Amane stand on his own two feet. Should Amane fall, Misu would buy Amane time to recover rather than helping him out. And Amane would always stand back up, ready to hurl barrages of insult. There had never been a need for Misu to lay a hand on him.

"Sorry, Amane."

Misu proceeded to push Amane's unresponsive body towards him. Amane could shoot all the curses and bullets he wanted at Misu later -- Misu actually looked forward to it -- but Amane's safety came first. His eyes looked up and down Amane's lithe body, checking for any injuries. Relieved to find none, Misu decided to carry Amane on his back instead of bridal style. At least that's one less thing for Amane to complain about.

Amane had not responded to Misu's apology. Neither did he respond to Misu piggy-backing him out of the warehouse. The only other indication that Amane was still alive was the gradual tightening of the hands wrapped around Misu's shoulder, like a child not wanting to wake up from a dream so he clung tightly onto his teddy bear.

Misu had a feeling that he would not be hearing strings of curses and insults for a very long time. He was already starting to miss it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently I have this inability to write fluff properly...And this chapter is my attempt at writing one. Does it even count? XD


	28. First Snow (Haku/Eiri)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was Eiri's way of coping with the cold he had learnt to associate with death. It was destroying him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas in where I live! Merry Christmas! Hopefully this fic is fluff enough to warm your heart. If not, whoops....~

"Look brother! It's snowing!"

Eiri remembered every detail, the image of his little sister pointing at the window excitedly upon seeing the first sign of snow.

"Let's go out and see!" Eiri held his sister's hand and took her outside. "Mom, we're going outside for a bit!"

"Eiri, Moe, don't forget to wear your coat!" His mother kindly reminded them, but young Eiri and his sister were already outside, celebrating every single drop of the fluffy white substance that fell from the sky. Back then, snow meant Christmas is coming, and Christmas meant lots of presents. Even if Eiri knew that Santa does not exist, that did not make him stop hanging his sock up and anxiously anticipating presents on the night before Christmas day.

It was once, a season filled with joy.

* * *

"Look Eiri, it's snowing~"

Eiri's heart skipped a beat at the announcement, a bittersweet nostalgia crashed upon his being. He choked to come out with an answer, coming out with a grunt instead.

"Christmas is coming up~"

Eiri sighed heavily. This would be his first winter as a SAKURA cadet, and he had to spend it with this man-child of a messiah, Eiri bitterly noted. Haku was annoying enough as he was on any other season. Eiri would greatly appreciate it if Haku could tone it down a bit just throughout this winter. He could already feel himself slipping into darkness as a drop of snow landed on his shoulder, causing chill to run through his body.

"Just hurry up and finish your shopping." Eiri snapped, his voice unusually cold. Haku did not utter a single word to Eiri anymore.

* * *

Without a roof over his head, Eiri instantly forgot how to see the joy in seasons. Summer was too close of a reminder to the day his house and his family went ablaze. Winter hammered into Eiri that he was truly alone in this cold, unforgiving world.

Eiri had come very close to death multiple times, something unusual for someone working in a mafia gang. The feeling of life slowly being drained by blood oozing out of his system, numbness gradually taking over leaving his body cold as ice, his consciousness burning frantically, desperate to cling onto life…When winter came and devour every ounce of warmth in Eiri's system down to his core, the way it dulled Eiri's senses as if he was a living corpse, it was too familiar for comfort.

* * *

"Kaidou-kun?"

Eiri blinked at the call of his name. He had the feeling that he was expected to say something from the way everyone in the classroom looked at him. Eiri looked to the front of the class, and saw Ichijima patiently waiting for Eiri to answer his question with a smirk that told Eiri he had no intention to repeat the question.

 _Shoot!_ Eiri frantically searched the slide before him for clues while trying to recall what little information he had listened to before he blanked out. The slide was showing him mugshots of various convicts, and Eiri recalled Ichijima saying something about espionage. Was it about disguise? Was Ichijima asking him to identify the impostor in the pictures on the slide? Eiri had no way to make sure, but he would give it a shot anyway. "I think--"

"Pertaining to the method of disguise of the convicts that is shown in the slide, convict #55782 and #59883 are assuming a role of a dead person, while convict #38780…" Beside him, Haku suddenly stood up and absorbed all the attention from Eiri to himself. Eiri did not miss the deliberate reiteration of the question, Haku's way of telling him to get a grip.

Eiri doubted he could get his act together. This was Eiri's way of coping with the cold he had learnt to associate with death. It was destroying him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

So Eiri excused himself from the class he knew he would not listen to, trying to catch a sleep he knew he would not get.

* * *

While the mafia did not care enough to provide him with surplus nutritions that could help generate heat during this freezing cold, they did provide Eiri with minimum amount of clothing. He remembered the coldness of his sniping gun on his grip cutting through the gloves down to his bones, the time when he couldn't aim straight because his hands could not stop trembling, how he missed a chance to pull the trigger because his fingers grew paralyzed in that split second and how he was awarded a bullet to the shoulder in return.

Funny how Eiri was able to regain sensations on his body all at once when he least wanted it, being burnt and frozen alive at the same time. Agony brought Eiri down to his knees, and not a moment later, collapsing onto the freezing snow. Rivulets of crimson life stained the pristine snow around him, taking away with them Eiri's consciousness. He was growing cold, his eyes unfocused. Briefly, he caught glimpse of the patches of blood he had created, and he thought it reminded him of Spider Lily, the flower for the dead. Perhaps this was his grave, at last. That had been Eiri's final thoughts before darkness stole him away.

Under a blanket of snow, Kaidou Eiri regained his consciousness. Once again, his life was spared.

He got to see another winter.

* * *

Since Eiri was more of a gun user and Haku was more of an intelligence-based spy, they did not thrive as much in physical sparring compared to the other members, so they incorporated the use of guns in every practice. Trust kept them from firing bullets at each other.

On this particular training, the first thing Haku did was to point his gun at Eiri's head. The countdown from three had not even reached zero.

"It's your loss." Haku freely declared. Then Haku walked away before Eiri could say anything in return, before Eiri could even realize he was supposed to be engaged in a practice spar.

It did not take a genius to see how dark the circles under Eiri's eyes had gotten, especially visible in contrast with his increasingly pale complexion.

* * *

The news reported that this was the coldest winter yet in half a century, and they were not kidding. Even after covering himself top to toe with every long sleeved clothing article he could find and wrapping himself thoroughly with his blanket, he could feel the coldness persistently trying to penetrate his defense. Worse, he could feel himself sweating under the excessive layer of clothing and still felt like a block of ice. Eiri immediately discarded the extra clothes leaving only a simple shirt and pants on and jumped back into bed.

It turned out to be a horrible decision. The moment Eiri closed his eyes, he was warped back into some time in the past, lying prone on the snowy ground with blood oozing out of him, left abandoned to die. Thick sheet of snow would try to give him a proper burial, enveloping his lifeless body in white, but Eiri refused to lay still. Every time darkness tried to take over him, he would wake up, every single time.

It was exactly what Eiri was doing now. Every time he closed his eyes, he would snap them open just as quickly.

The winter had taken away all his senses save for his sight. Eiri could not afford to let go of that, even if he knew better that he would have died under the snow years ago before he could die while sleeping on a bed. Without sleep, this winter would never end. If he slept, he would lose consciousness in this freezing cold, and Eiri was too afraid to inflict that upon himself.

Haku should not have walked out of the spar, Eiri lamented. If Haku had beaten Eiri up to exhaustion, Eiri could finally be forced to shut down. That was fine, because Eiri knew he would wake up the next day. He had to.

This was going nowhere. Just when Eiri was about to give up and relent to spending another sleepless night, he suddenly felt someone sneaking up on his bed behind him. _Haku!!_ Eiri was shocked, but was too tired to express it verbally. Somehow, it felt warmer. Eiri felt his heart beating a lot faster, pumping warmth that defrosted his numb body. Haku didn't say anything, just laying there sharing half of Eiri's bed, and Eiri could only let him because he couldn't muster the energy to yell him off. Even if he could, he doubted Haku would get off his bed.

Not a moment later, Haku draped his hands and legs around Eiri like he was a bolster. Eiri jolted at the sudden intimacy. "Wha-?!" Eiri wanted to protest, but Haku placed one finger over Eiri's lips, hushing him. Although he was not exactly warm, Haku definitely had higher cold resistance, and he was now sharing it with Eiri. Haku entangled his hand and his leg with Eiri's, enveloping him with his body warmth like a blanket. Right after Eiri could feel himself thawing, fatigue washed over him, taking over.

* * *

Years ago, Eiri had been afraid of playing with the snow. His little sister could happily roll around on the snowy ground making snow angel shape with her hands and legs, but Eiri couldn't. He was already freezing from the cold, he could not imagine the coldness should he cover his whole body with snow.

"Come on, brother!" His little sister grabbed his hand and tried to pull him to the ground. Unfortunately for his little sister, Eiri was older, and therefore had more strength. But one day, his little sister accidentally fell onto the snow. Eiri knelt down trying to help his litter sister back up. He was caught by surprise when his sister tackled him onto the snow.

"Let's make snow angel!" She took Eiri's hand and started waving it up and down in the snow, giggling at her brother's surprised look. It was pretty fun, Eiri soon realized. The feeling of snow melting against his arms and legs as he pushed them aside was surprisingly pleasant, though extremely cold. He let his sister continued to help him make the wings of the angel, their hands entwined, moving in tandem.

* * *

 

Even with Haku's body protecting whatever warmth left in Eiri, he still felt cold, and he barely had the energy to keep his eyes peeled open. His consciousness was drifting away. Eiri gripped onto the hand that was entwined with his tightly as he was swallowed further and further into the darkness. _Please wake me up._ Eiri didn't know whether he had actually said that out loud, but he felt Haku grip on his hand tightening, unwilling to let go, and Eiri let himself fall into slumber before he could hear Haku's response.

"I will."


	29. Ice-cream (mainly Souma/Shuusuke)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A test of character by Ichijima, using ice-cream and blade.

The atmosphere in the Church was no different than usual, if not quieter. The coldness of the winter had made the cadets more lethargic than usual, opting to spend their free time holed up in their room instead. Only two cadets could be found hanging around in the hall enjoying a glass of wine, discussing the most recent events involving their close friend and colleague.

"I didn't expect Eiri to be that bad with cold. The poor kid looked like he hasn't slept in forever." Souma said. "Maybe we should lend him some extra blankets and stuff?"

"Don't bother." Shuusuke quickly replied. "This is something he deliberately neglected to tell even his messiah, Haku. It is definitely something personal. There is nothing we can do."

"But still," Souma clicked his tongue. "It's hard to enjoy Christmas without those two, y'know? Not saying that you're bad or anything, no offense."

"None taken."

"The Church is so quiet without them shouting at each other." Souma stretched his arms and adjusted his position on the seat.

"That is indeed true." Shuusuke adjusted his glasses. "That being said, I do not celebrate Christmas, so I can't say much in that area."

"You don't?!" Souma brought his face closer to his partner opposite him.

"At most, a formal dinner." Shuusuke corrected.

"Oh man, you miss out a lot! I always spend my hristmas with kids in the daycare center. We do things like decorating christmas tree, and there's also secret santa where we exchange gifts anonymously-- you won't believe what one of the kids come up with for a gift!…" Souma went on to describe his christmas experience most energetically, so Shuusuke kept his opinion to himself and listened well.

"What a surprise to see someone here."

Souma's story telling screeched into a halt, his face turned sour. He recognized that voice anywhere. "Headmaster Ichijima." Shuusuke stood up to address the senior respectfully, a stark contrast to Souma who averted his head and pretended to not notice.

Ichijima continued walking down the stairs, intending to join the two. Shuusuke noticed something red on Ichijima's hand, the one that was not holding onto the cane. It looked like…ice cream? Shuusuke decided to withhold his comment, even if upon closer look there was no doubting it was two bars of red ice cream on Ichijima's hand, because there was something else that stood out in the ice-cream.

What normally should be wooden handle in the ice-cream was replaced with something metallic, like a blade, carefully wedged between the rows of Ichijima's gloved fingers.

"I am sorry to hear what happened to Kaidoh-kun." Ichijima formally offered. Souma was taking none of that.

"You knew there's something off, yet you threw the question at Eiri anyway." _you hypocrite,_ Souma knew not to push his guts _too_ far, though he still stubbornly refusing to look at the headmaster in the eye.

"Indeed I did."

"Why you--!"

"May I ask about the object in your hand, headmaster Ichijima?" Shuusuke quickly stepped in between the hot-tempered Souma and smug-looking Ichijima, interjecting him both physically and verbally.

Ichijima extended the hand with the ice-creams to Shuusuke. They still maintained a perfect form given the coldness of the winter, which also brought the question as to why Ichijima offered them ice-creams in the first place.

"The ice-cream is not poisoned, it's cherry-flavored. But be careful, the handle is entirely made out of _very_ sharp blade." Ichijima casually explained.

"Is this a joke?" Souma growled behind Shuusuke. In honesty, Shuusuke shared the same sentiment as his messiah. However, as far as Shuusuke knew, Ichijima was never the type to joke. His actions might be prudish, but they always had some meaning behind it. A blade covered in ice-cream in the middle of winter...

"May I ask why you are giving us this?" Shuusuke asked after it was certain Ichijima would not be responding to Souma's provocation.

"I believe you yourself should know the answer best." Ichijima answered back with a smirk. "Now, I would appreciate it if you take the ice-creams."

Shuusuke knew, if left to Souma, he would most likely refuse to even touch it. In fact, Souma was yelling to his ear to reject the offer outright. And speaking of touching it, it bothered Shuusuke on how he was supposed to accept the ice-creams. He had to very carefully adjusted his fingers to avoid accidentally cutting himself, and he did not wish to bet his fingers on whether the blade was double sided or not. There was an easier option to take the ice-cream from the meat, but that would be messy, not to mention unhygienic.

This kind of dilemma felt startlingly familiar.

"Souma, could you get us a plate?" Shuusuke was relieved to find himself a third option. Since Souma was more than eager to get out of Ichijima's sight, and so he did without questions.

Ichijima looked impressed at Shuusuke's answer. Shuusuke, however, doubted it was genuine.

"Back when I gave this to my messiah, he just took it from the top." Out of nowhere, Ichijima told him. "He was such a hands-on person, going so far so as to dirtying his hands just to make sure the blade is out of the way."

Suddenly it hit Shuusuke, what this situation reminded him of. The day he was kidnapped into the Church, the day he was forced to accept a life a SAKURA cadet.

What he was doing now…it was exactly what his past self would have done. In the face of inevitable danger, he would try his best to dissect everything in order to gain as comprehensive of understanding on his position as possible. It did not matter should the ice-cream melt, or the blades cut into Ichijima's hands. Shuusuke valued taking a well thought-out action more than anything else.

That explanation seemed logical, but it did not seem fitting for Ichijima to come all the way here just to tell them that.

"Is there…a correct answer to this?" Shuusuke tried asking.

Ichijima's answer was quick. "You are not planning to eat it, correct?"

Shuusuke was forced to nod. Souma would definitely refuse to eat it, while Shuusuke just wanted to get the blades out of the innocuous sweet.

To his surprise, Ichijima turned and started to walk away. "That's a shame then. I shall try asking Kaidoh-kun and Mitsumi-kun instead."

Eiri and Haku? There was no way Eiri who was already struggling with the cold would accept it. Haku had a very sweet tooth, but as far as Shuusuke was aware of, ice-cream was not anywhere near the top of Haku's favorite sweets.

No, wait.

If he applied the same logic as he had done to himself, if this ice-cream was a symbolic representation for Ichijima's double-edged, sweet-coated offer…But Ichijima had drawn a comparison to his messiah's personality, how his 'hands-on' messiah had the sticky ice-cream smeared all over his hands because he had taken it by the meat. So if he were to apply the symbolism to himself…

_Do you have what it takes to continue your stay in the Church?_

* * *

 

"I'll take it."

Ichijima stopped in his tracks at Shuusuke's resolve.

"Souma, pass me the plate."

As expected. It seemed that he would not be finding anyone like his messiah, who had taken the ice-cream by the blade handle and eaten it like it was any ordinary ice-cream. There were countless who had darkness inside their heart, a handful who were able to overcome them, and apparently, only one who were able to live with it side by side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this, it has been a month since I first started this series! I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to post every single day throughout the month (quality notwithstanding :P).  
> It does take a toll though, and I shall be ending it when next year comes.  
> Hopefully you've found at least one chapter enjoyable enough to read within this chunk of stories :D


	30. Graduation Mission (Ichijima/Kamikita)

Ichijima Haruumi and Kamikita Ryuuji made the record as the first pair to successfully graduate from the Church. To put it simply, despite having been separated for an entire year, they trusted each other. Plenty of things were omitted, like how Ichijima lost his leg in the process, or how Kamikita nearly lost his life.

 

One day, there were given a warning that they would receive details on their graduation mission on the next day. Before the day could even come, in the middle of the night, Kamikita suddenly received an ultimatum to leave the Church immediately. He was forbidden from contacting anyone in the Church, his messiah included. It was as if he was banished.

 

Having no way to ascertain his position in the Church anymore, and given his only connection outside was his past attachment to a certain organization that had been wiped clean some time ago, Kamikita was like a pet abandoned in the wilderness. He was becoming those people he had pulled the trigger of his gun at, useless, without a place to belong. The easy answer had been to pull the trigger at his head.

 

 _"My reason for coming here…is because I hate the society. If you are expecting some sob stories from me, you are asking the wrong person._ "

 

Thanks to Ichijima's words, Kamikita instead spent the time rebuilding the organization he was once a part of, a true assassination group that would eliminate everyone deemed 'useless' to the society, _in hope for a better society_. The possibility of it being a part of their graduation mission had completely slipped his mind. Now that he was not able to stand by Ichijima's side, he wished to help his messiah out by working on Ichijima's goal. Killing was the only skill Kamikita had after all, and coupled with his intrinsic abilities, he was able to revive the dead organization and operate in a more efficient manner than before.

 

Unfortunately, he was not able to avoid falling into the same trap, or so Kamikita had thought until the leader of the ambush against his organization revealed his face.

 

"Ichijima!" It had been a year since they last saw each other. Kamikita was estatic.

 

"My mission is to erase this organization." Ichijima was nothing close to estatic. He coldly pointed his gun at his former partner.

 

"Wait wait-!" Ichijima didn't even hesitate to pull the trigger, forcing Kamikita to duck. "Why are you doing this?"

 

Ichijima did not stop shooting at his former partner, aiming for his vitals every single time much to Kamikita's annoyance. "I am not repeating my words." Ichijima answered in between shooting, his voice near emotionless.

 

First, Ichijima was trying to eliminate Kamikita's organization, something that Ichijima had never shown disagreement towards before. Then there was the lack of expression on Ichijima's features. Kamikita decided to stop avoiding Ichijima's attacks. Although Ichijima did not lower his gun, the shootings had also stopped.

 

Ichijima walked closer, each steps his boot made echoed loudly throughout the warehouse. Kamikita did not move, did not say anything. Ichijima was standing inches away from Kamikita, his gun pressing tightly against Kamikita's forehead.

 

"I shall repeat myself. My _order_ is to erase this organization." Kamikita did not miss the use of the word 'order' instead of mission.

 

_"Don't you think it's preposterous to bend to the whims of the society who doesn't even know what it wants?"_

 

There was no doubting that Ichijima very well intended to shoot his brain out of his skull, and it was unlikely for Kamikita to get away fast enough at this proximity. Even so, the fact that he had not meant that Ichijima was waiting for Kamikita to do something, to pull the safety of the gun back on somehow. One wrong move and his life was a goner. Think, what was Ichijima trying to tell by acting against his own convictions?

 

_"Whatever happens, let's graduate together, shall we?"_

 

That was the first platitude Ichijima had told him throughout their partnership, Kamikita now realized. It was the day before their supposed graduation mission announcement, right after the warning was given. Kamikita had shrugged it off as Ichijima's usual habit of sugar coating his words, completely forgetting the fact that while Ichijima loved sweet talking others, he had never once done so to Kamikita.

 

"I hereby declare the dissolution of this organization." If Ichijima had to act against his own beliefs, subjecting himself to demands of the society, then Kamikita would support his back. "That's the answer, right?"

 

"Thank you." Ichijima smiled, lowering his gun to his sides. A blush crept over Kamikita's cheeks upon seeing his messiah smiling genuinely for the first time. The feeling was quickly replaced with pity upon realizing how rough Ichijima had had it throughout Kamikita's absence, during the entire year of what turned out to be their graduation mission. Kamikita wrapped his hands around Ichijima, hugging him tight.

 

"You've done well." Kamikita whispered back.

 

If someone asked them about their graduation mission, they would end the story here with a happy ending. In reality,

 

"Get out of there, boss!"

 

Ichijima's record as being the most hated person in the Church worked against him in the worst timing possible. A multitude of bullets hailed through Kamikita's back courtesy of one of the cadets that had been assigned to this mission together with Ichijima. It was telling how much the Church members hated him, not caring if they hurt Ichijima in their attacks compared to Kamikita's underlings who shouted warnings of danger to him.

 

"Kamikita!!"

 

Between his hazy mind due to the sudden pain and rush of blood loss, Kamikita could vaguely register his name being said by those lips for the first time. What happened subsequently was a flurry of events his weakened self could not process in detail, but he recalled being tossed aside to the ground as Ichijima battled his underlings, desperately trying to call off the fight until he could no longer do so. By the time he regained his consciousness, he was on a hospital bed with Ichijima beside him, _on a wheelchair_. Ichijima was a brilliant fighter, but much to Kamikita's guilt, even he could not fend off multiple enemies at once while protecting Kamikita at the same time.

 

"I'm sorry." Kamikita quickly apologized. Ichijima smirked at his words, as if he had just figured out the key to the universe. Then he said,

 

"No one can graduate from the Church unscathed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I have more time, I want to edit this more. It just feels...lacking in something. I'll consider going back and edit the entire work once this is over :D


	31. Highschool AU 1 (Ariga/Mamiya)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An actual highschool AU story :D (1/3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which shooting club uses real guns apparently, Ariga is very, very straightforward, Mamiya is still same old inferiority complex ridden kid, and monkey crush happens.

It is painful to admit that you have a crush for someone who is universally acknowledged as an asshole by everyone else. That was Mamiya's story, and how he fell for the stoic, heartless shooting club president, Ariga.

The first time they met was during the club enrollment trial. Mamiya were slowly growing flustered how his shots kept on missing the target, how his target board was perfectly spotless compared to everyone else's. He could hear it, the sound of their shots making impact with the target. Some shoot sporadically, others shoot in a very steady rhythm that made Mamiya wonder what he was doing there. Stubbornly refusing to give up, Mamiya gritted his teeth and attempted another shot- only to have his gun forcefully removed before he could pull the trigger.

It was the club president, Ariga, looking _very_ unimpressed while holding Mamiya's gun hostage. Flustered, Mamiya did not notice he had a sniper gun with him until he suddenly lifted the gun up and without aiming, shoot at the target. It hit bullseye, the first bullet hole in Mamiya's impeccable shooting target.

"You can shoot with your eyes closed." He unceremoniously passed the sniper gun to Mamiya.

"W-wait!" Mamiya called for Ariga before he went on to continue his observations on the rest of the applicants, his hands fidgeting with the sniper gun. Ariga had just called his shooting worthless. Mamiya shouldn't be wasting any more of his time here. "I…I think I should quit. I'm just wasting your time here and-"

"It takes skills to miss the target with _that_." was Ariga's blunt answer, pointing at the gun on amiya's hands. Mamiya couldn't decide whether Ariga was sarcastically mocking Mamiya's skill, or stating the accuracy of a sniper gun, or both. But before Mamiya could call him out on that, Ariga had moved on to comment on the other applicants.

With a sigh, Mamiya gave the sniper gun a shot. He missed.

* * *

Days later, the result of the trial were announced. Successful applicants whose name are listed were gathered in the club room for their first official club meeting. In the midst of people chattering amicably, Mamiya wondered if he being there was a joke by Ariga. He had seen the brunette sitting in front of him hit a number of consecutive bullseye. The black haired guy sitting next to the brunette was less accurate, but at least all his shots hit the target. And there was Mamiya, whose board only had one bullet hole that was not his to be proud of. Mamiya sighed, slumping his head on the table.

"He said I can shoot all the other animals in the jungle dead except the one I'm hunting." Mamiya heard someone complained. Based from the direction of the sound, it's definitely the black haired guy talking. _From the sound of it, by he, did he mean Ariga?_

"You did miss a lot, Kaito." Someone laughed. Mamiya guessed it was the brunette sitting before him. Continuing his pretense of being asleep on the table, Mamiya continued to listen.

"Not like your's all bullseye anyway."

"And he called me out on that. He said mine is a collateral damage."

"You're talking about the club prez right? He said I can only shoot the dead!" A third person joined the conversation, his words confirmed that they were badmouthing Ariga. _And he said I have a special skill for completely missing the targets_ …Mamiya recalled. He thought he should feel relieved that Ariga gave such blunt comments to everyone, but that was not the case. He felt flustered, the same feeling he had when he kept on missing his shots while everyone else were doing fine. _But why?_

Before he could think of the answer, the conversation was abruptly cut short by the arrival of the demon they had been speaking of, the club president himself. He announced the division of the training group, which Mamiya assumed, would be based on aptitudes so that people like him would not be dragging anyone feet's down. The people whose names were called out were to join the senior in charge of their group and go out to their destination. The classroom grew emptier one person at a time, the brunette was called first, then the third person, then the person called 'Kaito'. Mamiya knew he was going to be put in dead last group and he expected as much. But the last group had exited the room, and Mamiya's name was never called. He and Ariga were the only two people in the empty classroom. _Did he accept me to the club just to kick me out?_

Mamiya quickly rose from his seat. He would rather spare Ariga the trouble and resign. "Ariga, I-"

Once again, Ariga cut his words off. "You will require special training." He gestured for Mamiya to follow him out of the room. _An idiot like me, huh_ , Mamiya translated. Ariga kept on calling out his incompetence, yet he was accepted into the club anyway. Mamiya did not understand what Ariga was trying to tell him. Even so, Mamiya felt like he should not belong here, and he intended to tell Ariga that before he wasted his time training this idiot.

"Ariga, I--!"

"Save it for later." Ariga quickly dismissed once again. Mamiya sighed, having no choice but to obediently follow behind Ariga. He was taken to a shooting range outside school, different from the one used for their trial. Mamiya would not have guessed it was a shooting arena based on the appearance of the building alone. Inside, it was totally empty except for the workers, who all bowed dutifully towards Ariga and greeted, "Good afternoon, young master."

Did Ariga just take him to his private shooting practice arena?!

There were multiple rooms inside the building. Ariga opened one and walked inside, Mamiya followed behind him and closed the door. The room was the size of a classroom, with unpainted concrete walls and floors and lit with a single bulb. But unlike a normal shooting arena, the targets were all over the place, on the floor, the wall, and even up on the ceiling. Ariga gestured for Mamiya to stand in the middle of the room, right below the lightbulb. Then he passed Mamiya two guns, one for each hand. Mamiya could not shoot a target that was straight in front of him. Now Ariga expected him to shoot targets that were scattered all around him?

He took it back when Ariga came in with a blindfold.

"Ariga, what--?!"

"Shoot in the direction of the noise." Ariga ordered from behind him, putting the blindfold over Mamiya's eyes.

"That's crazy! What if I--!"

"You won't." Mamiya resigned to the fact that Ariga would never let Mamiya finish his words. Ariga finished tying the knot of the blindfold. "I've told you before, you _can_ shoot with your eyes closed."

He meant he wasn't mocking Mamiya when he said that? The praise helped to steady Mamiya's erratically beating heart from having to stand in the middle of the room blindfolded. He heard Ariga taking steps away from him towards the door, until he was leaning against the door.

"Begin."

There were ticking sounds coming from one of the targets, like a clock was placed behind it. Hands trembling, Mamiya pointed his gun in the direction of the noise.

"The air-conditioning is not even on." Mamiya heard Ariga mumbled under his breath. That was not the reason behind his shaking, Mamiya couldn't help but to smile. He was able to go through the motion with ease afterwards. There was ticking noise, Mamiya shot in that direction, the noise moved to another target. It continued until the ticking sounds disappeared entirely. Mamiya took off his blindfold, blinking his eyes several times to adjust to the sudden exposure to light. The first thing he saw was Ariga. Then he looked around, and he gasped in amazement how _every_ single target was pierced with a bullet, even if they were not bullseye.

"How did-" Mamiya began, but he stopped himself mid words. How did he manage to shoot everything? How did Ariga notice Mamiya's exceptional hearing, or rather, how did Ariga knew Mamiya's exceptional hearing would translate well into shooting? Why did Ariga bother to take all the effort to doing this in the first place? All the questions lumping his throat dissolved the instant Ariga smirked at him, the unspoken compliment melted all his conscience.

Ariga was glad Mamiya did not ask. The answer dated back to their first chance encounter, something that Ariga doubted Mamiya even remembered.


	32. Highschool AU 2 (Ariga/Mamiya)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of the actual highschool AU (2/3)

"I will contend for the club leadership position." Mamiya's declaration surprised many. He was neither outspoken nor the best shooter in the club. He was arguably closer to the current club leader Ariga than to any of the club members, and that was defining close just based on the amount of time spent practicing together. Yet, Mamiya wished to take on the leadership, to succeed Ariga's status.

He wanted to be capable enough stand by Ariga's side.

* * *

 

Just a few months prior, Mamiya was a freshman, running around the school doing errands specified in his orientation activity. His job was to get as many students to complete a simple paper survey within that day. The weather decided that would be a good time to rain cats and dogs, forcing many to take shelter in their classrooms. He did not have the courage to enter a fully packed classroom, so his only choice was to ask the few unfortunate enough to be caught in the rain.

Mamiya waited at the entrance of the school building, listening closely to the sound of footsteps from outside. Even the wailing and the rattling sound rain made could not conceal his acute hearing. To his surprise, he heard someone from inside walking towards the entrance, towards him.

"Excuse me, could you help me complete-ah," Mamiya stopped himself. That person's steps were of someone that had been exposed to military drills before, firm and rigid. Looking at the person's stern expression, it seemed like Mamiya's hunch was correct. That person was someone he would later learn to be Ariga.

"A survey? How useless." The way Ariga said it showed no malice, but it was sharp enough to jab Mamiya's already delicate conscience. Mamima hurriedly excused himself from the spot.

"N-never mind, please excuse-"

"Who told you to go?" In hindsight, right from the first time they met, Ariga had always been cutting Mamiya's words off. Although feeling like he should disappear from Ariga's face, Mamiya obeyed his senior's order and stayed. Without saying anything, Ariga took one of the stack of papers Mamiya was holding, held it against the wall and began filling in the form.

Mamiya heard the sound of footsteps getting closer. Someone walked into the school building. "Hey Ariga, whatcha doin?" The man, likely to be Ariga's age, asked before Mamiya could offer his survey to him. Mamiya sighed.

"Can't you see?" Ariga might sound like he was mocking the man, but he was merely pointing out a fact, Mamiya could tell from his voice.

"Fine, fine. Be that way, I-"

Ariga suddenly snatched the rest of the papers from Mamiya's hands and shoved it to the other guy. "Get the class to finish that, and bring it back in 10 minutes." His command left no room for complaints. Although grumbling as he went, the man did as he was instructed anyway.

Mamiya was utterly dumbfounded. All he had been doing was staring at Ariga's commanding presence, being absorbed into it. Many had that level of confidence, but most translated into all-knowing arrogance, or no-brainer recklessness. This was the first time Mamiya saw someone who could do the balancing act, and to Mamiya's eyes, he was beaming really brilliantly.

At that time, Mamiya truly wished to be at this person's side, perhaps as a follower, Mamiya couldn't tell. But he quickly dismissed it as impossible, and with a smile of regret, tried to enjoy this miraculous encounter as much as he could. Ariga's friend came back to pass Mamiya the completed survey, Ariga passed his as well, and walked away with a curt nod as his goodbye. That was the sign for Mamiya to end his daydream.

Rather than to long for something unattainable, Mamiya would rather forget it existed. So he did.

But not Ariga.

The first time Ariga caught a glimpse of Mamiya, he saw someone extremely vulnerable beyond his feminine features. He had seen other freshmen running around barging into classrooms with the survey, he had also seen freshmen who disregarded the activity completely, thinking it was beneath them. That had been the reason for Ariga's early departure from school, which brought him to meet Mamiya.

The first reaction people had when they saw Ariga was always fear, followed by contempt. His rigid countenance seemed to unsettle every single person he met, and once they heard Ariga spoke, they grew offended, even though Ariga was merely uttering the truth.

Mamiya's first reaction towards him had been looking at Ariga's shoes, with fear. His final reaction had been a smile, the first time someone who was not asking for a favor smiled to Ariga.

This person, Mamiya, was seeing, or perhaps hearing something in him that others could not. That was when Ariga, for the first time in his life, desired to spend more time with him. But Ariga did not know how to do that, so he helped Mamiya with his work, which was definitely not the answer.

A twist of fate brought them together once again. Even if Mamiya could not remember him, Ariga could. So Ariga did the best he could to spend more time together.

* * *

Mamiya was dedicating a lot more time on solo practice. He gave his all in socializing with other club members and conduct club activities successfully. The distance between him and Ariga had never been small, but it was significantly larger as they spent practice together less and less. Mamiya wanted to see the same smirk Ariga gave him when he managed to shoot all the targets in the room once again. Wishing to see Ariga smiled at him, Mamiya did all he could to become someone he believed Ariga could be proud of.

Ariga could not keep on covering for Mamiya's lack of normal shooting skill, even if he was exceptionally talented at shooting blind. His direct approach in tutoring Mamiya had earned him a warning from his teacher in charge, that he ran the risk of him and Mamiya being kicked out of the club for blatant favoritism. Ariga was forced to cease the private training, which was when Mamiya started busying himself with solo training and other projects. Ariga soon grew busy with preparing for national exams, and his involvement with the club was forcibly diminished as he had to gradually transition his leadership to the next batch.

A couple of months passed, and Mamiya was elected leader of the club. Amidst the joyous roars and clapping, Mamiya walked to the front of the class and shook hands with Ariga. Ariga gave a faint smile. Mamiya looked like he had not eaten and slept properly in weeks. Their handshake was more of a brief touching of hands. As they took a good look at each other, the same regret went through their minds.

_What have I done?_

 


	33. Highschool AU 3 (Ariga/Mamiya)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An actual highschool AU (3/3)

It quickly showed, the stark difference between innate talent and effort. Mamiya was not born a leader. Even if Mamiya followed all the steps down to the letter, he still could not come close to Ariga's standard. Mamiya was an efficient leader; He made sure practice sessions were held regularly, competitions were well represented, and complaints were heard and acted upon, at the cost of himself. Mamiya had never once chosen himself for competition, because his already bad and unpolished skill would only be a hindrance. He listened to complaints of others, but silently endured his own's. Mamiya soon forgot the one and only reason why he had joined this club in the first place.

On the day of Ariga's graduation, he remembered why. That was the reason why Mamiya was absent from the club activity that day, knowing full well the seniors were coming back for a short reunion, which included Ariga. Under Mamiya' s leadership, he had soiled the legacy that Ariga had left behind. Mamiya could not imagine what kind of face Ariga would show him, and he did not want to know.So Mamiya quickly ran out to exit the school as soon as official school time was over.

In a ironic twist of event, he saw Ariga standing by the entrance of the school, or rather his silhouette casted by the orange sky. A flash of deja vu- Mamiya briefly saw rain- blinded Mamiya and he instantly halted, his heart beating fast. The moment felt so right and Mamiya found himself wishing for time to freeze despite his mind shouting at him to get away from Ariga before his presence humiliate him further.

Ariga spoke before Mamiya could make up his mind, something Mamiya would never expect.

"I apologize."

The words threw Mamiya into a sea of flame. _You should feel sorry for being born_. There it was, Ariga too was going to tell Mamiya in the face of how much of a trash of human being Mamiya was, for totally and utterly screwing up what legacy Ariga had built in the club, and that he should have never been born in the first place-!!

"I apologize for-"

"No, stop." It was Mamiya who interrupted this time. Those words hurt no matter how many times he had heard them. But at least, spare him from hearing it from Ariga, because Mamiya would not be able to handle it. "I get it." Keeping his head low, his eyes hidden behind his bangs, he stormed past Ariga and out of the entrance. He did not expect a hand to firmly grab his elbow and yanked him back.

"I have to tell you this." Ariga said, his face still as expressionless as usual. It was a huge contrast to Mamiya, who was already on the verge of tears.

"Just leave me alone!" Mamiya tried freeing his hand by force, instead felt the grip on his hand tightening. "Ariga!!"

"I'm sorry," Ariga continued nonetheless, ignoring Mamiya's protests. "For making you unhappy."

 _What?_ Mamiya ceased his struggles.

"You are a capable candidate to be a club leader, I recognize that. That was why I had chosen you." Mamiya, who had his back facing Ariga, did not see the extent of regret and sadness that Ariga's voice failed to convey. "When I congratulated you on your appointment as my successor, something was off. I kept thinking about it for the last 5 months."

"I should have known it as a leader myself." Ariga paused, trying to find the correct words. "I don't…want you to go through the same experience."

"…because I'm incapable?" Mamiya hissed through gritted teeth. As much as he tried to forget Ariga's existence after Mamiya took over, during those five lonely months, he kept on catching himself waiting for a certain someone to arrive and commence the session before realizing that he was supposed to do it.

Ariga struggled to formulate his sentence, something Mamiya later realized to be very unusual for the very blunt man to do. That was what Ariga ultimately did, he said exactly what he had in mind. "I want you to be my vice leader."

Mamiya's breath hitched. Ariga could not look at Mamiya. He let go of his grip, but Mamiya did not run. The two stood there, not facing each other, not saying anything. Time ticked by, students walked to or from school, passing by them. Before they knew it, the sky had turned from orange to burning red, the closing time of the school building was near.

"We should be going soon." Ariga finally broke the silence. Without saying anything, he walked past Mamiya towards the exit. Mamiya stood there. As he watched Ariga's figure growing further and further away from him, a painful grip seized his heart. From the time they shook hands until now, that had always been the distance between them. Ariga kept on moving forward, and if Mamiya never moved from his place, their distance would only grow further.

_"I want you to be my vice leader"_

Fate had been the first thing that brought them together. Ariga did his best in trying to close the gap, but he had to continue moving forward. To be able to stand beside Ariga, Mamiya had to chase after him. So he did.

Mamiya ran with all his might towards Ariga, gradually slowing to a casual walk once he was two steps behind him. He was still far from being able to stand side by side with Ariga, but if Ariga allowed him to follow his steps behind, that was already enough for him.

Ariga slowed down his steps until he was walking next to Mamiya. They continued walking like that, basking in each other's company, until time forced them part.


	34. The End of A Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it really okay, to end this second chance that was bestowed upon you with your own two hands?

Guns are essential to SAKURA cadets. It marked the second chapter of their lives, an opportunity granted along with the power to take other people's lives. It was as if the cadets were prolonging their own breaths by stealing others while justified under the pretense of protecting the country. Each of them had their identity- their public existence- wiped upon coming to the Church, but not their wounds and these cadets, in pursuit of resolving those wounds, willingly accepted this life-prolonging treatment over death.

The Church did its best to give the cadets a new reason to live through the 'Messiah' system. To most, it was just an attempt to cover up the hole in their hearts by placing a band-aid over it. There would eventually come the time when the band-aid could no longer cover the hole that ate up the entire heart. That would be the time when that cadet, with the gun he had been bestowed upon, decided to eliminate what he deemed the largest threat to the country, himself.

_BANG!!_

Mitsumi Haku visibly winced upon hearing the loud gunshot reaching his room. He slowly pulled the juice box away from his lips, his constant urge for sweet overcame with a taste of bitterness, the death of his first two messiahs.

"Another one, huh…" Kaidou Eiri sighed and rose from his bed. "I'll go and take a look."

Suicide was not a common occurrence in the Church, mainly because there were a lot less ways to stay alive than to get themselves killed. The easiest and most common way to die is to be killed in action. Sometimes, an infiltrating traitor amongst them could take a casualty or two. In other words, in this line of work, they have no need to seek death because death is already seeking them. That being said, Haku could understand the sentiment of the rare few who took their own lives, for he had found himself walking down the same path a couple of times.

"Haku, are you coming?" Eiri was visibly less concerned about the entire ordeal. Perhaps it had something to do with his jinx as the man who can not die, Haku justified. Dismissing his uneasiness, Haku followed Eiri out of their room. They met other cadets along their way, brought along by their curiosity. Out of nowhere, Haku saw Shirazaki Mamoru dashing full force past him and Eiri towards the crime scene with Yuuri Kaito half-heartedly following behind, seemingly unaware of the true meaning behind the gunshot. Haku smiled wryly at their naiveté.

"Mitsumi-san, Kaidou-san." Mamiya Seiren greeted from behind Haku, with Ariga Ryou walking two steps behind him. Unlike the first two, they seemed to realize what a gunshot inside a cadet's bedroom implied. Even so, Mamiya still asked, "Is it really…?"

"It is." Haku replied. There was no point in sugar coating what they were about to see. Ariga did not have anything to say, so all four of them walked to the scene in silence.

Before they even reached the room, they were greeted by a loud shrill voice that belonged to Kuroko. "I don't need your help, Shirazaki-kyun. Now get out of the room so I can start cleaning this mess, shoo shoo!" Yuuri was waiting outside along with other onlookers, watching quietly as Shirazaki was booted out of the room by a broom.

Adhering to Kuroko's warning, once the four of them had reached by the room, they peeked from the outside. What they saw was a body lying cold on the ground, blood oozing from a single hole in his head muddled with bits of what might be his brain. There were blood splatters on the wall and the bed sheet.

Haku was relieved to see that it was a simple death. Eiri and Ariga stayed silent. Mamiya trembled.

"Ah, Mitsumi-kyun, Kaidou-kyun~!" Kuroko's extremely chirpy voice was like the unrelenting sun to the blood and the death that darkened the room. "Help me get this body out, will ya? It's getting in the way of my cleaning." To emphasize his annoyance, Kuroko made attempts to sweep the corpse like he would to a trash. The body did not budge, if only because Kuroko did not intend to play golf with it. Haku and Eiri exchanged glances before stepping into the room and did as they were instructed. No one noticed Mamiya's trembling increased in intensity.

"Seriously you guys, this Church is already a pain in the ass to clean. If you wanna do something like this, try to not make a mess."Kuroko rattled on as he swept the exact same spot back and forth. "And if you think so worthlessly of your own life, then don't come here in the first place geez! You're supposed to be protecting the country for god's sake, protect the good, kill the bad people. What good are you if you're dead--"

"Kuroko-san." Mamiya called out, his voice clearly conveyed the intensity of his trembling. The other cadets noticed the look on Mamiya's eyes and took a step back, letting Mamiya and Kuroko stand face to face. Haku and Eiri decided to put the body aside and stayed inside for the time being. Kuroko paused his sweeping midway, an eyebrow raised at Mamiya. "Don't you think there are people in this world…who shouldn't live?"

"Definitely." Kuroko answered without his usual chirpiness.

"And if that person is yourself?"

Kuroko sighed, adjusting one hand on his hip. "I was wondering where you're going with that and it turned out to be this, how disappointing." He ignored Mamiya's flaring glare and continued sweeping that same spot. "To answer your question, that's what this place is for."

"You said it yourself, Kuroko-san. Kill the bad people." Kuroko stopped sweeping once again upon hearing Mamiya's borderline crying explanation. "If you're that bad person, then wouldn't it make sense for you to kill yourself?! He's doing his job right until the end, to protect the country from the likes of himself!." Mamiya took in shaky breath, trying to control his unbridled emotions. Two deep breaths, and he managed to regain half of his composure."So…stop mocking him…please."

"Are you done?"

Kuroko was the least bit sympathetic with Mamiya's explanation. The look on Kuroko's eyes were times more intense than Mamiya's. That, coupled with the lack of exaggerated intonation in his voice, managed to bring thunderstorm to the already grim scene. "Do you even understand what you've just said? A bad person? Have you ever looked in the mirror?"

Kuroko picked up his broom, using it to point at the specific people he mentioned. He made sure to list every single cadets he could set his sight on. "Shirazaki Mamoru, murderer of two policemen. Ariga Ryou, a child assassin. Kaidou Eiri, a former mafia member. Yuuri Kaito…" Even the most stoic of cadets showed a slight hint of discomfort at having his wounds jabbed.

"…And last, you, Mamiya Seiren. The child of a terrorist." Kuroko pointed his broom right at Mamiya's eyes. "In case you missed the point, all of you here are 'bad guys', which by your definition, should all die a horrible death."

"That's not what I--!"

Kuroko jabbed the broom closer to Mamiya's face to silence him. "And guess what, the society agrees! That's why you're all here, isn't it? Because this is the only option you can take where you can at least _try_ to stay alive."

Mamiya bit back his comments. Pleased, Kuroko lowered his broom and brought it before his chest. "Listen here, _all_ of you. When you entered this Church, your fate is sealed. You either get to live on and continue this job, or die trying. If you never entered this Church in the first place, your death is sealed. You are all lucky bastards who get to prolong your lives. The least you can do in return is to just _try_."

"Until you die that is, I must add. Bottom line is, you're all special bastard who are given a second chance to pursue a different ending other than death. If _any_ of you makes this kind of mess again, I'm going to mince your body to dust. " The transition to his exuberant persona was instant. "Because it's sooo totally difficult to clean things up when you're like all lumpy and heavy y'know…now Mitsumi-kyun, Kaidou-kyun, get that body out, out, out!"

The incident killed the curious air, and the onlookers were more than eager to disperse the moment Kuroko dropped back to his typical personality. Mamiya saw everyone leaving him, Shirazaki and Yuuri who consoled each other, Haku and Eiri who looked immersed in their own thoughts, Ariga who left without saying anything. He glanced at Kuroko who was mopping the blood away with his usual smiley expression, and was greeted with a cold gaze that betrayed those sentiments. Mamiya met Kuroko's gaze for a good few seconds before he too left the area.

_I disagree with you, Kuroko-san. There is no other ending than death._

_We merely live until we deserve to die._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is it. The last chapter (not really XD)!  
> I think I'll update one last chapter for new year, and that's all for this daily one-shot run.  
> I shall spare the long notes for the last chapter :3
> 
> Happy last day of 2016! :D


	35. The Beginning of An End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The starting line and the end goal are there. What's left is to fill in the blanks.

Kamikita knew he was not cut out to do this even before Ichijima entrusted his role to him. He was not wrong. One of the cadets he had recruited turned out to be the leader of a terrorist group, and another one had gone missing as he was speaking now. Standing by the grand set of stairs in the hall with Ichijima, Kamikita was more than relieved to be able to return the baton to him.

"I'm glad to see you again, Ichijima." Kamikita greeted his messiah with a pat to the back. "And not just because you're taking your position back."

"If I could, I would say 'good work'."

Kamikita smiled. Even until now, his messiah would never let Kamikita down easily. "I know, I know. I did bad." Mamiya Seiren's betrayal, and now Yuuri Kaito's disappearance. Under Kamikita's leadership, the cadets became more unruly than ever. It was a no brainer that his position was quickly given back to Ichijima the moment he made his return. "I wonder where did I go wrong…what do you think?"

"Explain to me why did you recruit those two."

"They needed help." Kamikita recalled the days when he brought those two into the Church. "Mamiya Seiren was under constant terror from his parents' terrorist organization. Yuuri Kaito hacked into the Church in order to save his friend Shirazaki Mamoru. He was ready to give up on life should Shirazaki disappeared from his life, but his hacking skill was too valuable to waste. You advised me to recruit those whose lives can only be saved by the Church, and so I recruited them."

Ichijima gave a smile of disappointment. "I should have known better than to give you such vague words."

"They're vague?" Kamikita was truly surprised.

"See, here is the problem. The Church prevented them from dying a needless death, indeed. They also possess darkness that can be overcome into greater strength. The Church saved them, but they don't think so."

"Ungratefulness?" Kamikita asked. "I understand that many would rather not live here if they have an option."

"Why did they stay then?" Ichijima paused briefly. "That's the thing that is lacking from the cadets you have recruited. If I look back at the four graduated cadets I've recruited, three of them would certainly be dead if not for my intervention. One of them, Mitsumi Haku, was pretty similar to Yuuri Kaito actually, the only difference being that his life depended on his missing brother. But that factor was enough to lead us to the current condition today, one safely graduated, and one missing."

Kamikita listened closely to Ichijima's explanation. "If Shirazaki Mamoru had been taken elsewhere, Yuuri Kaito would swiftly follow. Mamiya Seiren was not in any immediate danger and could have been saved by any other organization besides the Church, including the one targeting his life. There is no particular reason why it had to be us, and therefore, no reason for them to be loyal."

"Doesn't that go for everyone else then? Their lives could be saved by any other organization and not just us?"

"That is true, but not the case." Ichijima said. "Their options were down to a certain death, or joining the Church. It's all or nothing; A Hobson's choice. The feeling of indebtedness was the foundation of their loyalty to the Church."

"When you put it that way, it sounded like blackmail." Kamikita frowned.

Ichijima did not respond to him. "In the end, the Church is just a place of beginning. We gave these youths a shelter to live in, a comrade to grow together with, and a reason for living. What happens afterwards is not up to the Church anymore, it's up to them. We have placed them in a new starting line with an end goal in sight, but whatever happens in the middle is their responsibility. Mamiya Seiren had the perfect narrative to be a very strong SAKURA, but alas, if it is that easy the number of graduates would have hit ten by now."

"True." Kamikita gave a small smile. Their attentions were drawn to the sound of multiple footsteps approaching. Kamikita patted Ichijima's shoulder one last time. "I'll leave it to you then, Ichijima." He said before exiting the room.

Ichijima took his position up on the center of the grand staircase, awaiting the arrivals of the people approaching. From the entrance emerged three new cadets with Kuroko walking behind. They took their position before Ichijima, standing next to each other while Kuroko went up to Ichijima's side.

"Miike Mayo, Kogure Jun and Yugi Koutarou. Welcome to the Church." Ichijima greeted the gloomy faces with his usual smirk. "There are a lot of things you will need to learn about, some which you will pick up along the way. But I should say this now. Right now, at the very start of your new chapter, please start thinking of what awaits you at the end, because your stay will eventually be over."

"But, it is up to you to decide how, starting now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah..so this is the end XD
> 
> I started this entire 'daily fanfiction' thing for 2 reasons: I was sick of spending my days doing literally nothing, and I can't find any fanfiction on my favorite character in the fandom XD. After 36 days, I must say...I will continue this trend. If I can't get myself to do something productive, then at least a hobby, a fanfiction. But it won't be series of one-shots (because the quality sucks).
> 
> I have an ongoing fic in mind that I will work on writing every single day, the same way I've been approaching this daily fic. If things goes well, first chapter should be out by the end of January. My 2017 resolution~
> 
> Thank you so much for those who have read till this far, whether you only read certain chapters, or follow the entire thing. There's not a lot to my writing, but I hope I at least did justice on characters that are scarcely represented in this fandom. I might come back to edit this entire thing, if and when I somehow learn to write better :P
> 
> Hope to see you in my next work!


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